Alright, so as you can see from your notes, we're going to be looking at 1 Peter tonight. We finished Ecclesiastes and so we're going to be looking at 1 Peter together and we'll just be looking at an introduction of the book and then verses 1 and 2. Before we begin, I want to take a little bit of a, I want to take a moment and explain kind of where we're going. Before you go on a trip, it's helpful sometimes to get an itinerary. You know where you're going, you know how to plan. And so that's what I want to do for just a minute before we start. The way that we, well let me start like this. When we, when I first came, and I talked with you guys in Sunday school hour, We looked at 2 Timothy, okay? And so I'll need you to use your memories for just a second. But as we looked at 2 Timothy, remember Paul writes 2 Timothy knowing full well that he's gonna face death very soon. He's writing to encourage Timothy, be faithful in your ministry. He understands that Timothy is going to be facing a lot of hardships, the least of which is that Paul is about to die. This is his spiritual father, and so this is a big deal. And so Paul writes to Timothy, and in 2 Timothy 3, verses 12 and 13, Paul says to Timothy, And he says, while evil people and imposters go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. So he paints a really, really bleak picture of what Timothy's future ministry would look like. And as you think about this, he still, in spite of all of this, in spite of the hardship that Timothy's going to face, he expects Timothy to persevere. He expects Timothy to press on through this hardship, like a faithful soldier, he even says. And so, how was Timothy supposed to endure? How was Timothy supposed to endure? If you look at verses 14 through 17 of 2 Timothy chapter three, Paul says this, but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it. and how from a child you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. And then Paul says this, and this is what's critical, all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. The Bible equips us, this word for complete, it could also be translated perfect. It literally means the Bible leaves you lacking nothing. When you are going out on your Christian mission, right? In your Christian walk, the Bible fully prepares you for everything that you will encounter. And so with this in mind, does anybody remember what I said months ago would be our sole focus in youth group? There was one thing I said, this is going to be our sole focus throughout youth group. What was the one thing based on that passage? Does anyone remember? No, not Jesus. I mean, Jesus is the, Jesus is the sole focus, but something else. Anybody? What's that? The Bible, yes. Yes, ma'am, yeah. So the Bible, right? God's word, the word is supposed to be our focus. This is it for us. As believers, this is everything that matters. When you guys leave youth group, if somebody were to come up to you and say, hey, what was your youth group about? What did you guys focus on? What's one thing that you took away from youth group? I would hope that you'd be able to say that the word was our focus in youth group, that you learned how to better engage God's word, that you learned how to better study God's Word. And so this is even why we worked through the book of Ecclesiastes the way we did. This is why we're working through John on Sunday mornings the way that we are, verse by verse, because it focuses our attention on one thing, not topics, not illustrations. It focuses our attention on God's Word. It's very intentional. The reason that we're looking at Scripture the way that we are. So all that being said, There's an old Chinese proverb that says, give a man a fish, you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you'll feed him for a lifetime. I'm sure some of you guys have heard that before. The point of the proverb is that if you feed a man for a day, you solve his problem for one day. If you teach a man how to feed himself, how to provide for himself, you have effectively, you've solved his problem for life, for the rest of his time on earth, essentially. And so the same is true in church, right? And the same is true when we come to God's Word. We can be Word-focused, and we can be Word-driven, and we can be focused on spiritual growth. But if you guys leave youth group, and you don't understand how to spiritually feed yourself, you don't understand how to come to the Scriptures and glean truth that you can apply to your life and change the way that you're living from the Bible, then we wasted our time in here, right? Because you're in here for a limited amount of time. And so what I want you to understand and what I want to do for you is I wanna try and teach you how to fish, essentially. I wanna try and show you, and some of even what we'll be doing is how I start to prep a passage to preach a sermon on it. Now, we're not gonna go as deep as I go when I prep for a sermon and do full sermon prep, but essentially this is gonna be the beginning of that, okay? And so in a sense, We're going to look at how to break down a passage. We'll be able to focus on keywords. We're going to focus on important phrases, theological ideas, practical applications. I'm going to be asking you guys a lot of questions. So buckle up for that. This may sound stupid. I need thinking caps on. Have you guys ever heard that? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So no, no, but just, I'll need you guys to hang with me, right? This is going to be, this is going to be much more interactive than, than the way that we walk through Ecclesiastes or the way that we study through John. But, but hopefully it will help you guys to engage the word a little bit better and help you to teach yourself how to do that. Right. This is something that I've done in past youth groups. I think that we did this once before. couple months back. So I really hope that this is going to be a blessing for you guys, and it will also look somewhat similar to what the adults do on Wednesday nights as well. So this is kind of a similar thing to what they're doing. So we're going to be starting in 1 Peter, and I want to take a minute and look at some background information before we get into this text, into Peter's introduction. But I am going to read our passage and then We will jump into the text, all right? So God's Word says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ, and for sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you. And really, Peter absolutely packs these two opening verses with theological truths for us. So this is going to be a good text for us to get into. Let's pray, and then we'll look at this text. Dear God, I pray that you would be with us during our time in the Word. I pray that you would help us to focus our hearts and minds on your Word. Lord, I thank you for these teens. I thank you for their desire to be here tonight and to fellowship with one another. Lord, I pray that now you would gather our attention on your Word and that we would be able to walk away with applications tonight that would change our lives and that we would walk closer with you because of the message of your Word tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. So, as I was studying for this passage, one of the commentaries I read had an interesting story tucked into the very opening pages that said, Spiritual health warning. Attending this event can seriously affect your future. Now this was the wording at the foot of a notice inviting people to a meeting about a project entitled Dirty Hands. And this was considered, this was concerned to involve Christians in meeting the needs of the worlds around them. So they're going to this ministry and this ministry is going to engage them with meeting physical needs of the world around them. Now, it could indeed be dangerous to attend the meeting. Some Christians would find themselves being challenged to spend time doing relief work in Ethiopia or Bangladesh, actually responding to the challenge. Do you expect to be affected the same way when you read a book? And you understand that that's exactly why Peter wrote his epistle. Peter writes his epistle to the churches of the dispersion. Why? So that you can experience the power of the gospel at work in your life. Peter is writing this gospel so that your life might be changed, might be transformed by truth. And so as you think about that, let's look at some introductory information about this book. Number one, the author of the book is, guess who? Anybody have any guesses? Peter, okay. Why is Peter the author of the book? Because it says so, that's a good answer. Anybody else? Okay, now I want to propose a thought to you is that during this day in the church age, Peter's a popular guy. Peter is on par with guys like Paul, with guys like Apollos, and so people would frequently write letters and sign off as Peter, and maybe even have false teaching in the letter, and they're sending that off to churches saying, hey, I'm the Apostle Peter, and this is God's message for your church. Now that wouldn't always necessarily be the case. So how do we know that this letter was really written by Peter? How can we have confidence in that? Because what would really surprise you is books like this where the author says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, a lot of times scholars spend pages and pages of their books debating whether or not this was really Peter that wrote this book. So does anybody have any reason, other than the fact it's signed Peter, that Peter wrote this book? Anybody? It says it in the beginning of chapter one. Okay. Okay. So there's a couple reasons that we can be confident that this letter is written by the apostle Peter. Okay. First of all, this style of writing, let me ask you another question. Is this the only time in the new Testament that we hear from Peter? No. Where else do we hear from Peter? Okay. Other than that, where else do we hear from Peter? Okay. The gospels. Where do we hear Peter preaching sermons? Acts, who said Acts? Okay, very good. So we hear Peter preaching sermons in Acts. Now, his style of writing in this book heavily resembles the preaching that we hear in Acts. Peter even uses similar imagery, similar illustrations. In 1 Peter 2, 7, and 8, Peter writes that Jesus is the cornerstone, that he is a rock of offense. This is an illustration that Peter used in Acts 4 when he defends himself before the Sanhedrin. Now, Peter also refers to himself as a witness to the sufferings of Christ in chapter 5, verse 1. Now the other thing that you can do is when there's a sequel book, when there's 1 Peter and then 2 Peter, which Peter also claims to have written, there's extra evidence in 2 Peter that also affirms he wrote 2 Peter. And in 2 Peter, Peter says, in my first letter to you, and so we know that Peter has two letters, this is one of them. We can have very good confidence that this is written actually by Peter, but we gather our confidence not just from the fact that he says, hey, this is Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ writing to you, but also from things that he says in his letter that prove, okay, you're actually Peter, right? You're actually the guy. I'm thinking of how many of you guys have seen the movie Elf? Right? Okay. So when he says to, when Elf says to Santa Claus, if you're really Santa Claus, what song did I sing you on your birthday? And he says, well, happy birthday. Right? Well, Peter, in a sense, he does a similar thing. Peter tells us things about situations that only Peter would know about. And so that's how we, that's how we have this confidence now. The date that Peter is writing this book, it's connected to the burning of Rome. Now, Rome was burned down in AD 64, and so it's likely that Peter writes this book a little bit before or a little bit after Rome is burned down, probably in AD 63 to AD 65. Okay, so that's our best guess. Now, that won't heavily, heavily impact the way that we look at this book, but How might the burning of Rome, how might that impact the writing of this book? Because we look at things like dates, and we would go, that's really dry. That is boring. Who cares about when this book was written? But it's actually really important. How do we know that this book was written in AD 63 to AD 65? And I should say, why does that matter? If it's connected to the burning of Rome, why would that matter? You guys know anything about the burning of Rome? Jerry, you nodded your head. What do you know about it? Okay. Okay. Would that be important? Okay. Probably. Yeah, probably. Okay. Aurora, go ahead. Yes. Yeah. So, so listen, those are really important things. So the burning of Rome, happens while Nero is emperor. Now, Jerry makes a really important point, and that is that after the burning of Rome, what happens is Nero's taking a lot of heat for the burning of Rome. No pun intended, but he was. And so he says, I'm in hot water with these people because I burned down their homes. And even some, I mean, Romans were killed. So you're talking about family members are are burned alive in this massive fire, one of the worst fires in the history of the world, literally. And so what does he do is he says, well, actually, it was those guys over there, right? It was the Christians. And they're an easy target. And so Nero says, it was the Christians, and they experience even heavier persecution than they already are. Now, that's why the date of this writing is important, because the burning of Rome plays a heavy impact on Peter writing to these churches who are experiencing serious, serious persecution. After the burning of Rome, their persecution is only exacerbated. Their situation is made significantly worse. And so the churches of the dispersion, he literally writes, we talked about that a little bit Sunday, he writes to the churches of the dispersion. What do you think that word means? Dispersion. Yeah, they were dispersed. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. They were spread out. They scattered because of this, because of this suffering. Now they've been scattered across Asia minor, all of these cities here. All right. All these cities, we have Pontius and Galatia and Cappadocia and Asia, Bithynia. All of these cities are in Asia minor. Okay. And so that's where these churches have scattered to. Now, Now, as you think about this, what do you think, with that in mind, we haven't even read the book yet. We haven't even gotten into the book yet, but we've talked about the date, we've talked about Peter himself, and we've talked about circumstances that are surrounding the writing of this book. What do you think a major purpose in Peter writing this book is? What do you think a major theme is going to be in the book? Jocelyn. Yes, yeah. So a major, major theme is going to be pursue Christ in spite of hardship, in spite of suffering, keep trucking along, right? Keep fighting, endure suffering. And so again, Nero had this lust to build. He ran out of space in Rome, and so in order to create that space, he burns everything to the ground. This makes the Christian situation far, far worse. And so as we think about this, now you see why the purpose, understanding the author, understanding the date, these things, without even reading the book, they can give us insight into what the author is going to address, into what the author is going to talk about. And so as you think about that, let's discuss really quickly several major themes that's gonna dominate Peter's writing in this book. Number one, his writing focuses heavily on Christian ethics and morals, all right? And to think about, he's writing to a group of believers that have been scattered across Asia Minor, and he's writing to them about Christian ethics and morals, why? Because no matter what happens, no matter what they face, they were still called to a standard of living. They were still called to act like believers, right? No matter what they were facing, no matter what their circumstances were, Peter says, you have this calling, you should look like Christ. If you follow Christ, if you love Christ, you're going to obey Him. And so to be a true disciple in this way, it means even in the face of suffering, you're going to continue to follow Jesus. You're going to continue to obey. So that's a major focus is Christian ethics, Christian morals. He focuses on faith in God. He focuses on obedience to God. Peter is referred to as the apostle of hope. Why? Because he's writing to believers who had none. He's writing to believers whose situation looked very, very bleak. And so Peter repeatedly, he's going to give them hope. He's going to say, you have an eternal hope in Jesus Christ. You have an inheritance that is stored up in the heavens, right? Keep pressing on, don't give up. He reminds them repeatedly of their eternal hope of glory in Jesus Christ. He encourages the reader not to focus on the temporary suffering. Instead, focus on the living hope that you have in Christ. So, before we move on, I want to pause and make sure that nobody has any questions about anything that we've covered so far. Do we have any questions about any of this so far? No? Good? Okay. All right, let's look at 1 Peter 1.1. Let's look at 1 Peter 1.1. Peter says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, all right? And so as you think about this, we're gonna stop here already. And we're gonna look at this very first phrase, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now, in the very first phrase of the book, Peter asserts his authority as an apostle of Jesus Christ. One commentator notes that a New Testament apostle would have had similar or even greater authority to an Old Testament prophet. And what did Old Testament prophets do? What was the main thing Old Testament prophets did? We just went through Hosea, Micah. They prophesied. Okay, what did they prophesy? Because there was a heavy penalty for prophets whose prophecies didn't come true. So what did they prophesy? The Word of the Lord, very important distinction, okay? Prophets spoke the Word of the Lord, all right? Now, for a New Testament apostle to have similar or greater authority, the apostles are tasked with writing the very words of God and delivering them to his people. Okay, so from Peter's opening phrase, he is asserting that this book, this writing is inspired and it's authoritative. This is absolute authority. This book is exercising absolute authority over the lives of any believer that reads it. You as a believer, you must submit to the commands given in this book. If you're a true follower of Christ, you're gonna read these things and say, maybe some of these things are hard for me to pallet. Maybe some of these things are hard for me to live out. But this is an apostle of Jesus Christ, and he's tasked with giving me the very words of God that are for my sanctification. And so I have to obey. I have to obey what I find in this book, right? This book is not the musings of a crazy fisherman. This is the very message of God for his people. It's important that we view it that way. Now, as you look at this, we see Peter right here, and so we have the author. This is important for us to note for reasons we've already stated. And then we have an apostle of Jesus Christ. So, what is an apostle of Jesus Christ? Let me ask you this. Who can be an apostle? Because there are some churches out there today that would say, leaders in our church, this person is an apostle. So who's allowed to be an apostle biblically? Can anybody tell me? Micah. Okay, disciples that have been and seen Jesus. Wow, I'm actually impressed. I didn't think anybody would get one of these. Okay, so there are qualifications of being an apostle. That's one of them. You had to have been a disciple who saw Jesus. You had to have been one who followed Jesus during his earthly ministry, okay? So let's think of, for a second, some of these apostolic qualifications, all right? And this is important, I'll tell you why in a second. So we have one. There really is only two more. There really is only two more. So Micah says they had to be a disciple that followed Jesus during his earthly ministry. What are the other two? Does anybody know? I don't know, but did they have to see him? Yes. Yes, exactly. So they had to see. So these also had to be men on top of they followed him during his earthly ministry. They had to see him resurrected, resurrected. So there were disciples. And then two, they had to witness the resurrected Lord. All right, what's the other one? Anybody? Yeah. Bingo. Okay. Nice job guys. Okay. So they also, they had to be chosen. They had to be chosen by the Lord. Okay. Now I'll, I'll tell you where we get this. We actually get this from Acts chapter 1, verses 21 through 26. So let me read to you Acts chapter 1, verses 21 through 26. And if you have your Bible and you want to go there, you can. But you don't have to because I'll read it. So one of the men who have accompanied us, so this is Peter talking, Peter says, so one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, that's the first qualification, they had to be followers. Okay, the second, this is verse 22. Beginning from the baptism of John until the day he was taken up, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. So there's qualification number two, they had to witness his resurrection, that's in verse 22. All right, and then in verse 23, they put forward to Joseph called Barsabbas, who is also called Justice and Matthias. And they prayed and said, you Lord know the hearts of all. Show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. And in verse 26, they cast lots for them and the lot fell on Matthias and he was numbered among the 11 disciples or the 11 apostles. So the third qualification is they had to be chosen by the Lord, okay? So this is very important. When you interact with people who say, yeah, I go to this or that church, or yeah, I'm an apostle of this church, and I've been very caught off guard before when people say that. And I'm like, that doesn't sound okay. Is that actually okay based on the Bible? No, it's actually not. The Bible is very clear. There are qualifications for an apostle, and no one alive today can meet any of those qualifications. Because you're not seeing Jesus resurrected. You're definitely not able to follow Jesus during His earthly ministry. and Jesus hasn't chosen you to be an apostle. And so these are the qualifications. Very important that we understand that. I think that the Mormon church is one of the main churches that still refers to elders as apostles. And so just so we're clear, it's important for us to understand from a biblical perspective why other religions, frankly, it's not easy to say it this way, but it's important for us to understand from a biblical perspective why other religions are wrong. Right? The Mormons are wrong about that. That's something they're totally off base, totally unbiblical, not able to be apostles if you're alive today. And so as you think about that, just understand Acts chapter 1, Acts chapter 1 gives us those Now let's keep going in 1 Peter. So Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. So a couple words that are really important in here. Who is Peter writing to? He states his audience in that opening phrase, who is it? The elect exiles, okay, so this is our audience here. So we have the author, and now he's stated his audience, all right, and the elect exiles. Now, this is really interesting. Not a lot of apostles begin their epistles by referring to their audience in this way. You know, Paul, when he writes to the Philippians, he says, you know, to the church at Philippi and the overseers and the deacons, and he kind of has this greeting. But Peter says to those who are elect exiles, what is an exile? Okay, cast out from where? Somebody else. From their home, yeah, from their home nation. An exile is someone who has been essentially barred from their home nation. Oxford Dictionary says, the state of being barred from one's native country. Now, consider for a second, consider how you live your life. Does your life look like someone who has been barred from their native country? Now think about this for a second. If we took someone right now, you know, we could teleport them. We took somebody and rip them out of Russia and stick them in Palm Bay right now. What do you think that they would look like? Do you think that, do you think, do you think they would look comfortable like they're at home? Or do you think they would look out of place? They would look very out of place. very out of place. I actually looked up the weather in Russia tonight. It's snowing, and it's 9 a.m. there, something like that. So it's snowing. So if you took somebody from Russia right now and put them in Palm Bay, they would look totally out of place. They would be a foreigner, and it would be obvious. And Peter writes to his audience, and he states, his audience are elect exiles, right? Now this word elect, this is those who are chosen by God. This is essentially members of the church who are saved, okay? They've responded to the gospel. They are God's chosen people in that way. They're part of the church. And so Peter calls these elect believers, he calls them exiles. Now, why do you think Peter calls the believers exiles? They weren't exiled from Rome. Nobody had thrown them out. Why do you think he calls them exiles? Okay, yeah, so we're not home, Jerry says. We're not of this world, right? So this is in Peter's opening phrase. We haven't even gotten out of the first verse of this book. And Peter is already attempting to remind believers, what? They are foreigners in a land, not their own. This is not your home. And so as believers who have been scattered across Asia Minor, and they have been run out of their homes and they're facing persecution, relatives have been killed, have been murdered by Nero. Peter is writing to say, this world is not your home. Don't become attracted to the things of the world. Don't become distracted from your mission as a believer. You are in exile in a foreign land. But as you think about this, as you think about this, do you live this way? Do we as believers today, do you guys as believers in this room, do you understand that everything you stand for, everything you believe in runs against the grain of the culture around you? Do you understand that? Peter wants this to be at the forefront of your mind as he writes this book. He wants you to be thinking, what I believe in, what I stand for is not native to this world. People don't think the same way as me. I have a different focus. My perspective is changed. My priorities are changed. The things that matter to me may not matter to somebody else. These believers, again, they're facing incredible persecution. And so Peter wants to remind them they will always face persecution because the world hates them. The world hates them. Jesus himself highlights this reality in John 17, verses 15 through 18. And I think it's important for us to understand this because our world right now, it's very popular. We preach this message of tolerance in the modern world. Hey, everybody is loved and accepted here. You have your way and I have my way and that's all right. That's not biblical, that's not true. Jesus says in John 17, 15 through 18, he says, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of this world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. Remember also Jesus' words to Nicodemus in John 3, 20. For everyone who does wicked things, what? Hates the light. You remember Jesus telling Nicodemus that in John 3, 20, whoever doesn't follow the light, whoever doesn't obey and do the works of the sun, they hate the light. Not, they're tolerant of the light, but they just kind of subscribe to a different religion. Jesus says anyone, anyone who does wicked deeds, they hate the light. This is the disposition of the world to believers. If you call yourself a Christ follower tonight, this is what the world thinks of you. They hate you. They hate what you stand for. That's hard to hear. But Peter's writing to these believers to say, you are exiles, you are foreigners, don't get attached. Remember, as we finished Ecclesiastes last week, I started with an illustration of going to a hotel room and starting to remodel that hotel room. And you'd say, that's crazy. Hotel rooms are meant for a temporary stay. What are you doing? You're wasting your time. And the Bible is filled with admonishments for believers to say, what are you doing? Don't get comfortable. This is a temporary stay. Don't make life all about you and your comfort, right? And so. Understand, as a follower of Christ, you will face suffering, you will face persecution. Paul writes of that in 2 Timothy 3, 12 and 13, which we looked at earlier. And so as you think about this, I want you to question in your minds, I want you to think about in your own lives, how obvious is it to those around you? How obvious is it to the lost world around you that you are in exile? Do you think that that would be obvious? Do you think that lost individuals who interact with you, that they would be able to say, there's something different about that person? Surely they wouldn't phrase it this way, but they're a foreigner. Right? This is not their home. Now, I'm not suggesting in any way that you should act strange or that you should be weird. Okay? I'm not saying that. But I am saying there are tangible differences in what an unbeliever prioritizes in life and what we as believers prioritize. There are tangible differences. That means you can feel them. You can see them. It's right there in front of you. So when we understand that we're foreigners, we hold things of the world with a much looser grip, we understand, hey, it's okay, I'm willing to sacrifice my job. for God. I'm willing to sacrifice my reputation so that I can have a powerful gospel witness. It's okay if I don't have as many friends at a public school or at a public sports team because I have a gospel witness. That's okay because this world is not my home. This is not my final destination. I understand I'm a foreigner. I'm an exile here. That's how Peter wants us to view our lives. Your life should be lived as an exile. You're always looking to going home. This is your focus. And Peter wants that to be the believer's focus as well. Focus on the eternal hope you have in Christ. And you'll forget about your suffering very, very quickly. Focus on the eternal hope in heaven. Again, ultimately the things of the world is not what our life is about. So now look at verse two, look at verse two. So Peter, again, he names all of these cities off. These are cities in Asia minor, okay? And so Asia minor is roughly where modern day Turkey is. So if you have a map or you can look at that, maybe you know where that is off the top of your head. It's basically where Turkey is. All those cities would have been in that area. And so in verse two, Peter says, Again, this verse is so, so heavy. Very, very theologically rich. Now, When you look at this verse, what's the first word? Let's just take this phrase by phrase. When you look at this, what's the first word in this phrase that jumps out at you? According to the foreknowledge of God the Father. What word catches your eye? Hmm? Okay, foreknowledge, okay. Does anybody know what that means? That's a big, that's a really big concept. Aurora, go ahead. Okay, knowing beforehand, yes, that is good, that's good. Now, it's more the implications that get heavy, yeah, Josie. Okay, prior knowledge. Okay, so yeah, absolutely. This is a reference to, again, a lot of people tie this word for knowledge. A lot of people, commentators even, they'll take this word for knowledge and they tie it back up with elect, okay? Throughout the scriptures, we understand God has predestined, he has foreordained those who are his, he's chosen those who are his. These are theological truths. Again, they're very, very heavy and we don't have time to fully delve into them. But again, this word foreknowledge, it's connecting back up to the word elect. These are those that God has foreordained, they are His. They are His chosen people. And so again, He's speaking to believers. Again, just simplify it down to Peter is still speaking to believers. He's speaking to those who have responded to the gospel, they've placed their faith in Jesus Christ, and they are followers, they're true disciples of Christ, okay? And so what message does he have for them? According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit. Now this is the next really important phrase. So in the sanctification of the Spirit, what is sanctification? Elizabeth. Okay, okay, that's okay, that's okay. I put you on the spot. Michael. Okay, so one of the steps of salvation. Sanctification is to be sanctified. That is a technically correct answer. So when you think about this, when we think about sanctification, Michael says it's part of salvation. What are the three parts of salvation? Does anybody know? Okay, so we have justification. We've talked about this a couple times. So justification, what is justification? Somebody just shout it out. Okay, the moment, the point in time, okay. When we're made righteous, that's a good clarification. Okay, glorification then. Okay, what is sanctification? Yes, yeah, yeah, that's a good way to say it, to be set apart, to be consecrated, okay? This is what sanctification means. It means to be set apart, all right? And so Peter says, now we'll look at, we're not gonna look at it tonight, but glorification is gonna be a major theme through the book. So we'll look at that later as well. But sanctification then. So when we think of sanctification of the spirit, he says, according to the foreknowledge of God, talking about believers in the sanctification of the spirit. the sanctification in the life of a believer, it is affected by the Spirit, we're set apart with the help of the Spirit, but Peter says in the sanctification. What does this mean in the sanctification? This is kind of a tricky question. Anybody? McKenna. Okay, I think that's a good way of saying it. This essentially means our entire existence as believers is lived out in this state. It's lived out in this process of sanctification. This is where we live. Okay, now, with that in mind, do we ever reach glorification? Okay, okay, it's kind of yes and no, right? We do eventually, but not while we're alive. And so this is the process of sanctification. Peter says, this is a process that encompasses your life. This is in the sanctification of the Spirit. Your entire life is summed up in this state. You live in this process of sanctification. Now, what is the source of our sanctification? We actually read this earlier in John chapter 17. What is the source of our sanctification? Because he says it's the sanctification of the spirit. So that means the spirit is affecting this sanctification. It's helping us along. We obviously can't do it on our own, but we have to do something. What is that thing that we have to do in order to be sanctified? Ethan, what is the source of our sanctification? No? No? I'm looking for more specific. Because Jesus says, sanctify them by your what? Truth. And then your word is truth, right? So the source of our sanctification is what? God's word. Okay, so now, as you think about even, now think back to the beginning when I say, the Word has to be our focus. Why? Because Peter says right here, this is your entire life. Your entire life is sanctification. And we can't do that without God's Word. We cannot do that without God's Word. We have to be sanctified by the Word. So as you think about this, are you engaging God's Word? Do you engage His word? Now, there is no quota in the New Testament that says you must read your Bible this amount of time in a day. But it does say you must engage the Bible. But that's a regular thing. We are commanded to know and to love God's word. So are you engaging God's Word regularly? This book, the Bible, it is the answer for everything that we face. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 tells us that. It completes, it perfects the man of God. That doesn't mean that you as a believer will reach a state of perfection. It means you, what? lack nothing. You lack nothing. This book has everything for you. Again, this book is our only hope for changed living. This is it. This is the only way that we can change. We can't do it on our own, okay? And so, as you think about this, this is why the Word is important. This is where our life is, sanctified state. We can't do it without God's truth, without His Word, okay? Now, in the sanctification of the Spirit, Now this word for, I've emphasized this before, very important. That word is giving us an action, okay? In the sanctification of the Spirit, for what? Something should flow out of this sanctification. Actually, in this passage, two things will flow out of this sanctification. For what? Obedience, exactly. Okay, so if sanctification means to be set apart, if it means to be consecrated, what are we being set apart for? It tells us one thing right there, for obedience. You're being sanctified for obedience. Literally, Peter's saying the whole purpose of your salvation is what? Obedience to Christ. That is the whole purpose of your salvation. Obedience to his commandments. You obey what He asks you to do. Obedience to His will for your life. Now, as you think about this, Titus 2, 11 through 15, teaches us this same truth. So, as you think about this, I'm gonna read to us Titus 2, 11 through 15. Because maybe you're saying, I don't know if that's true, right? I don't know if the whole purpose of salvation is just so I can obey, right? Isn't it so that I don't have to go to hell? Okay, let's read Titus 2, 11 through 15. Paul says, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us. What's training us? He says, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, training us. What trains? Grace. Grace trains us, okay? So it's training us to do what? Renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. He skips down to verse 14. Paul writes that Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness. So he gives himself. For two purposes, Paul writes in verse 14, to redeem us from all lawlessness and to what? Purify to himself a people for his own possession who are what? Zealous for good works. That's the purpose of salvation. Jesus buys you back from lawlessness so that you can be what? Zealous for good works. So, why are you saved tonight? Why are you, as a teenager, coming to church, why are you saved? What's the point? The Bible says you're saved so that you can obey Jesus. He buys you back from lawlessness so that you're no longer a slave to sin. You are saved for the sole purpose of being passionate about obeying the commandments of Jesus. Again, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago on Sunday. That's not legalistic. There's a difference between obedience and legalism. Jesus sacrifices himself. He gives us salvation so that we can obey him. And then the final phrase there, is obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood. So again, we have this word for. It's very important. There are two functions of this sanctification for obedience and for sprinkling with his blood, okay? And so as you look at this, obedience is critical. This is the entire purpose of salvation is so that we can obey. And then he says for sprinkling with his blood, what does this mean? Does anybody know where this concept of sprinkling with blood, where would this have come from? A little bit of a tough question. Yeah, Josie. Passover. Okay. You're on the right track. You're on the right track, Eli. Yes, yeah, it's part of the sacrificial system. Okay, so in Exodus chapter 24, verses four through eight, this is where we get the idea of sprinkling with blood. The Bible says, Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, half the blood he threw against the altar, and then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will be obedient. They're making a covenant with God. And Moses took the blood and he threw it on the people and behold, the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance of all these words. So the blood did a couple things. What Moses does in sprinkling the blood on the people, it demonstrates their entrance into the covenant, right? It demonstrates they are entering into this covenant. They are adhering to the boundaries of this covenant. And in the same way, the shedding of Jesus's blood signifies our covenant with him. It seals us. The price for our sin has been paid. We no longer stand condemned before God. We are no longer under the wrath of God. Why? Because if we have placed our faith in Jesus Christ, we are covered by what? His blood, right? Yeah, we're covered by his blood. That's what Peter says. This is the sealing of our covenant with God. We are sprinkled with His blood. We are covered by His blood, okay? And so these are, again, these are images that these believers, they would have understood very well. They would have understood the sacrificial system. And so this is a powerful image for them. They know what it means to be covered by the blood of a covenant. And the beautiful thing is for us as believers, Those Old Testament believers, they're taking regular sacrifices to make penance for their sin. And with Jesus Christ, we're not doing that anymore. We are continually cleansed by His blood, right? And so this is, again, this is a beautiful truth for us. And then Peter finishes, may grace and peace, obviously these are big theological themes, may grace and peace be multiplied to you. What is the function of grace? We read about it in Titus 2. to train us, exactly. And so the function of grace is to train us, to teach us how we're supposed to live, to help us walk obediently before the Lord. So you see how all of this in these opening two verses, right? We cover so much, but most importantly, in these two verses, we see the function of salvation. see the function of salvation. This is what your salvation should bring about. It brings about your obedience, most importantly. So as you think about this, salvation, again, it should produce tangible results, tangible actions. Your life should actually be changed because of your salvation. And that's what Peter wants us to understand. Peter wants us to understand because of this book, your life should be changed. All right. And so as you think about that, let's go ahead and bow and close with a word of prayer. If you guys have questions, please come and ask me. I would love to interact with you about any questions you would have. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we're so thankful for your word. We're so thankful for the opportunity to gather and to study your word. Lord, I pray that it would make an impact in our lives, and I pray that we would be changed because of the message of your word. I pray that as we look at this passage and we see that our lives are always existing in this process of sanctification, and that sanctification should produce obedience to Jesus. Lord, I pray that you would help us be obedient believers, that we would be a people that are zealous, that are passionate for good works. Lord, we can only do this by your grace, that grace that trains us, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.