Welcome to South! We're glad you joined us today! Below you will find some sermon notes and Bible passages, to help you follow along with Pastor Scott's message in a new series entitled "1 Peter: Hope in Suffering". We hope you will be encouraged by what is taught today.

The author of 1 Peter is...Peter the Apostle.

Before becoming one of the twelve apostles, Peter, along with his brother Andrew, ran a fishing business. But Peter would eventually be one of the initial rocks upon which the church would find its foundation and grow, by way of him boldly declaring this truth he knew about Christ to others.

The recipients of the letter were the elect/chosen ones.

Based on the sinfulness of every last one of us, we have all brought upon ourselves and are deserving of an eternal separation from God in a place called the Lake of Fire/Hell. However, because of God’s gracious and merciful love, He chose to have a relationship with sinners, based on His sovereign and eternal plan and not based on any foreseen merit on our part. Peter was writing to some of the individuals at this time in history that God had lovingly, graciously, and mercifully chosen to have a relationship with.

Peter referred to the recipients of this letter as exiles because of the fact that their permanent residence was in Heaven. Peter goes on to identify these particular Christians as those who were a part of the “Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” This is a reference to many Jewish Christians who had to flee from their home in Jerusalem as a result of the persecution they were suffering at the hands of Nero Claudius Caesar.

Believers in this era are also exiles.

This truth that believers are “foreigners” or “temporary residents” living in this sin-cursed world, because our permanent residence is in heaven, is going to come up several times throughout this letter. This is vital when facing the hopelessness of various trials and struggles in this life, because it can lead us to have the same confidence that Paul had in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, where he says, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”