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FTGC-47
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FTGC-47 – Reflecting Christ In A Darkening And Hostile World of Suffering – 1 Peter 2-4
John Barnett here and welcome to another week of our 52 Greatest Chapters of the Bible study. As you can see on the screen, we’ve gotten to week 47 and my wonderful wife Bonnie, who is doing all the recording together with me, audio, and the cameras are right here. She’s praying because she’s watched me spend extra time this week. It’s three chapters and I can’t believe we’re going to get to cover this together.
If you’re here for the very first time you’re in the middle of a 52 Greatest Chapters of the Bible study and I’m on the road. My name is John Barnett. My wonderful wife Bonnie and I are full time missionaries. We’re finishing up our first quarter. We’ve been traveling for over 13 weeks. We’ve been teaching in multiple countries. We’ve done live audience classrooms and Bible institutes and Bible colleges. We’ve also done things like this, remote learning for groups. I’m so excited. I’ll try and work on some of the incredible things God has let us see that He’s doing.
While we’re here today we’re looking at week 47 of a 52 week-long study. If this is your first time, I’d encourage you to go back to week zero and listen to the how-to video, on how to study the Bible. My resources, I have my Logos library on my phone. I always carry my paper Bible with me, and you can see there I have been really marking up the Book of 1 Peter and of course constantly taking notes. Let me look for this. This is what I did this morning.
Let me back up because I’m actually in Romans and the Gospels. Let me back up to what I’m doing with you. I’ve already started working on Paul’s life and letters. I’m very excited about that study too, but we’re finishing our year together with all of you that are in the 52 Greatest Chapters Study. What we do is write the chapter, title, and the summary. We find all the lessons that we can find, personal lessons. These are truths and principles that God touches my heart with from His Word. Then I write down a prayer. All of this that’s in my journal is going to be typed out and you’ll be able to see it.
Let’s get right into it. The Book of 1 Peter and especially these three chapters we’re looking at is what you see on the screen. Peter is teaching the early saints how to be prepared to reflect Christ, now look at this, in a darkening hostile culture. They were in the Roman world. It was darkening, sinful, evil, wicked, and full of false teaching, everything, and Christianity was facing persecution. This is the classic picture of Peter, remember holding the keys. He introduced the Gospel to the Jews on Pentecost. He introduced it to the Samaritans with the evangelism of Philip and then to Cornelius and the Gentiles. In those three groups, Peter used those keys.
Let’s start with the slides. Right here is where we are in week 47. We’re covering three chapters, just like we did last week in James, which was an incredible time, but this builds on what we saw last week. This setting is what all of you that are with us normally know. However, if you’re just joining us, I am prayerfully sitting here on this side of the table with my Bible and my notebook, but I’m looking at my iPhone, which is a camera Bonnie uses with our switcher studio. I’m looking at that iPhone like it’s you, like you’re sitting across the table like we’re at Panera or Chipotle or Starbucks. Those were the main places that for years I ran Bible studies and small group Bible studies, but this is what we’re doing. We’re looking at suffering and why God allows suffering and the purpose. Sanctification, that’s what God does with the suffering in our lives using His Word by His Spirit. Then we get a great look in chapter 3 at marriage. This is just a great study.
The 52 Greatest Chapters is the name of this 52 week, year-long study. We’re surveying the whole Bible by just using these representative chapters. I have read the Bible over a hundred times and each time I’ve read it I’ve taken notes. Once, oh, I don’t know, maybe about eight years ago, I started a small group when I was pastoring a local church in Michigan. I said, would you mind sitting with me, letting me introduce to you once a week what I’m studying in the Bible? Then you study through that with me, and we’ll come back and share what we find in the journal. Personally, it was the most growth filled time for me in my life and for those that were in the group, it literally changed their lives.
For example, I’ll never forget walking around Calvary Bible Church, and I’d be in the wide hallways between services. I would run into people that I’d never met and that was normal, but these would be wives of men in my group. They would come to me and they’d say, what are you telling my husband on Monday mornings at 6:00 AM or Tuesday mornings at 6:30 or Wednesday mornings at 7:00 or whenever the group was meeting? I would say, why do you ask? They would say are you telling him to do things in our home or with me? I would ask, like what? They would say all kinds of things are happening. He watches television less. He’s less occupied with his hobbies. He’s spending more time with the children. He’s talking to me. It’s more than I’ve ever been used to. Plus, he’s asking me if it’s okay if he reads the Bible with me and if he shares with me what God’s teaching. He even prays with me every day. That little kind of clip was played over and over by the maybe 30 different family members, wives, and girlfriends of the guys that were in my Bible studies. God was at work, and I pray God be at work in your life. He’s at work in my life today using this Devotional Method.
What’s the Devotional Method? You title every chapter of the Bible. You can go to our website discoverthebook.org, that’s our main website. That website has resources for you. One of them is the whole 52 Greatest Chapter Devotional Method study guide so you can download it. It tells what the 52 chapters are, and it gives a much wider, longer, very elongated description of this method. You look for lessons, you find as many lessons, truths, and doctrines as you can. You invest extra time using a study Bible and I strongly recommend the MacArthur Study Bible. You can read about it in the description of this video. Find a link and look it over on Amazon. I would encourage you to have one. I have not only the big 4lb leather one that I keep in my study, but I also have an electronic version here as well as Grudem and all the other resources I mentioned. I carry them with me.
Bonnie and I are full time missionaries. We’ve taught the Bible in almost 60 different countries around the world. We spend 3/4ths or more of our time traveling between Bible training centers. That’s us, but here’s what the Devotional Method is. You find these lessons, now look at this, and you write a prayer in which you ask the Lord to unleash those truths into your life. I’m going to show you how to do this.
In my journal, I started by doing a study on Peter. Here’s a picture of Peter from the classic artist being crucified, Peter you’ve already seen holding those keys. He was a fisherman. He was one of the first disciples. You can read about that, in fact, we study that in our other 52 week course, which is going through the Gospels using the Holy Land as a backdrop. It’s called The Land of the Book Video Study Tour. You can read about that also down in the description of this video. That’s an incredible journey. So far, we’ve taken 2,500 people physically to the land of the book and we’ve taken close to that number virtually to the land of the book. They actually go to the Holy Land, and they see the spot right here where Peter was called.
He left everything, it says in Luke, to follow Christ. He was also called Cephas and of course Petros, Petra which is the rock and the stone in Matthew 16. Jesus said that on this rock, Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, He would build the Church. Remember Peter denied Christ. Jesus restored Peter after Pentecost. Peter was the first one to publicly proclaim the resurrected Christ. Then of course the largest church in the world is built on top of Nero’s circus, and chariot racing track in Rome, where an obelisk stood in the center, which is still gracing the spot of St. Peter’s cathedral. That’s most likely the spot where Peter was crucified upside down somewhere between 64 and 68 AD.
That is our newest course, the course I’m teaching right now. We started it a few months ago in Greece and Italy and we’re going back to the United Kingdom and back to Greece and Italy, teaching the life and letters of Paul. It’s taking the Book of Acts as the backdrop and interleaving every one of Paul’s 13 epistles, where they fit in the record of the Early Church in the Book of Acts. We actually go right there as a part of that course, right there to where Peter was martyred for Christ.
When you read the Book of Acts, which is how we learn, the Gospels introduce us to Peter and then the Book of Acts enlarges it. Look what Peter does. He gives that first Gospel message in Acts 2. Then he starts ministering to the Early Church which is meeting in Solomon’s Colonnade. Then he speaks before the Sanhedrin. The apostles speak. Peter again preaches at Cornelius’s house. Then look in chapter 12, right here, the whole focus of Acts changes, and it goes from 12 chapters of Peter kind of being the center stage, he moves off and I’ll show you in a minute where he goes and what he does. Now Paul comes to the forefront and of course, Paul starts preaching on his first missionary journey there in Antioch, then in Lystra, then in Athens, and on we go through the New Testament Book of Acts.
Let’s look at 1 Peter 1:1-8 now in our study. Some of you, you’ve got to remember these basic techniques that we use to maximize. You get your journal out. You’re always doodling, jotting, putting any thoughts down that you have, but also marking in your Bibles. Usually, I have another camera, but we had to travel light for this extended journey. My other camera looks down and you can see my Bible. What I’ll do is, I’ll just describe to you what I would’ve shown you and pointed to with my stylus here.
In 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 1, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” Notice what I said right here. Peter was the most well-known apostle in the Gospels. Then I quickly did some background work. I used the MacArthur Study Bible and my concordance and everything else in my study tools and found out right here that no one ever claimed greater loyalty than Peter. He said, everyone else will fail you, I won’t. No one was ever honored like Peter. Jesus didn’t tell any of the other disciples that you’re a Peter and that the confession you just made is the foundation of the Church. He was honored. No one else was honored like him. No one was ever rebuked as sharply. Remember Jesus said “get thee behind me Satan” looking right at Peter. What a rebuke. No one ever denied Jesus like Peter. Not once, not twice, but three times and you can read about that there in Matthew. No one was ever more totally smitten by his or her sin in the sight of Jesus than Peter was. It says he grieved deeply and repented. No one ever grieved more completely, and no one ever knew Jesus better or loved Him more. Or for that matter wanted His approval more than Peter. No one was ever restored more tenderly than Peter.
When we’re in the Holy Land in the video study tour, we do an entire hour lesson right there on the seashore. It’s called the Church of the Primacy today in Israel, but it’s a church. We don’t go inside the church. We go to the shore of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus restored Peter. Remember the little fire in the dark where they were out fishing and John said, hey Peter, it looks like Jesus. Jesus tells them to cast their net on the other side. Do you remember that whole story? We teach the whole 21st chapter, see right here, John 21, we teach that whole chapter right on the spot.
In my Bible what I’ve written down is this, and you can see it a little bit behind me there, how to reflect Christ in a darkening hostile world of suffering. That’s really what we’re introduced to in chapter 1. We’re not covering chapter 1, we’re only doing 2, 3, and 4. Everyone always asks me, if we are at Panera you’d say, how come? Why don’t we do all of them? Why don’t we do five? That’s so good. I say I know but see as soon as we start doing that, we have to cover all 1,189 chapters. I’m trying to survey the Bible, but I started out doing chapter 4 about the darkening, hostile world of suffering. Chapter 4 is all about that, but I always would say look at chapter 2 because that talks about how you grow spiritually as newborn babes. Then chapter 3, if you’re ever going to be married or if you are married or hope to be, this is the chapter for you. When we have all three of those, I usually would cover them as an aside, but now I’m going to focus on 2, 3, and 4.
To introduce Peter, look at verse 1 of chapter 1, 1:1. “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” I circled the word apostle. Then look at who he’s writing to. Still in verse 1, “To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” That’s his target and in just a minute I’m going to show you why that’s his target, where that was, and why that makes this book amazing. Okay. Those are some things you should have marked and noted in your Bible as you read it. What I would do is read the whole Book of 1 Peter, but you only are supposed to read chapter 2, chapter 3, and chapter 4. It’s such a blessing, take the extra time and read all five chapters. I did all five in my journal, but I’m not going to show them to you because it’s not part of our focus, but it’s a blessing. Okay.
The life of Peter has three parts. Each era of his life speaks of how he served the Lord. Number one, in the Gospel by Mark we have Peter walking with Jesus. Did you know that? Mark came to Peter as Peter was hunted by the Roman empire and Mark recorded Peter’s eyewitness account of walking for three and a half years with Jesus. That’s what the Gospel by Mark is. It’s not Mark’s Gospel. It’s the Gospel by Mark, recording the words of Peter and the eyewitness account of Peter.
Number two, in the Book of Acts as I just told you, in chapters 1 through 12, we have Peter working for Jesus. He is walking with Jesus, working for Jesus, then from Acts 12 onward to the epistles of Peter, we have Peter waiting for Jesus. He was always talking about him living in a tent. The time of my departure is at hand, I’m ready to go. That’s what we learned. He was waiting for Jesus.
Let’s go through the Book of Acts. The ministry of Peter, as you see here in the first 12 chapters, is what overshadows everything else, the life of Peter. Here are the key events, Acts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, you can read all those. In fact, this is personally what I do every time I read. I’m writing down because when you’re writing there are all those parts of your brain that your handwriting affects. Then you’re sharing this as a group so you’re hearing it and you’re speaking it and by using so many senses it deepens it. That’s why I made this chart.
Just for you to know here’s the Roman emperor that’s in Acts chapter 1, it’s Tiberius and Tiberius you see all the way across. The Roman governors, notice it is Pilate all the way across because he’s 26 to 36. Here’s the date. By the way, you get all this from the MacArthur study Bible so that’s just a little tool for you to use.
Look at what happens in Acts chapter 10 when Peter’s at Joppa and Paul is in Tarsus. We have a new prefect, and we get a new emperor. Wow. It’s still the first 12 chapters so it’s still all about Peter in the spotlight. Here’s a juncture. Herod Agrippa dies, but before he dies, he imprisons Peter. He’s going to kill him. He already killed James who is the first apostle to die. He’s trying to get the second apostle to be martyred and so it’s a juncture where persecution sends people all over the place. That’s part of the group that Peter is writing to, to those of the dispersion. Look, before Peter writes he went out and started ministering to all of them all over the outside of Israel. James becomes the pastor of the church of Jerusalem, we covered that last week, and writes his first epistle of the New Testament. Now Paul becomes central from here through the end of the book.
One more thing I want you to see: the Gospel by Mark is probably written somewhere around Acts 17 when Peter is traveling and probably being hunted in the 50s or at least being persecuted. These are some of the events. James was written, Paul’s epistles are starting to be penned, but right here is Peter again.
This is the Roman empire. This is the map we use when we’re studying both the Video Study Tour of the Gospels and we are primarily focused right here on the Holy Land, or this is what we use in the Life and Letters of Paul. Right here is Tarsus and Antioch where Paul was from, the seven churches were here, Paul’s missionary journeys are right through this area and like this and back. Basically, this is the world. Then Paul finally sails and is shipwrecked on Malta, comes back in to finally get to Rome right there.
After Paul’s first Roman imprisonment he wanted to go to Spain. Church historians tell us he might have even made it up here to Britain and he might have either sailed or gone overland. Paul’s life is amazing. This is the map we use both in the Video Study Tour of the Gospels as well as in The Life and Letters of Paul. I want you to see Peter’s main focus is this area right here.
Let me show you another map of that. This is the epicenter of the empire. I’ll back up. Rome is here, but yet there in this province, Roman Asia, which we would call Turkey, this big purple blob there. It was the most Roman part of the world. There are more Roman buildings in Turkey and Italy. There are more Greek, see here’s Greece right there, there are more Greek temples in Turkey, more Roman buildings. By the way, there are more holy land sites in Turkey than even in Israel. It was the epicenter of the ancient world.
Look at this. Do you remember what it says in 1 Peter 1 verse 1b? “To the pilgrims of the dispersion.” Remember they were sent out by that persecution starting in Acts 12 and continuing. Scattered throughout Pontus, that’s up here. Galatia, right here and extending all the way down to here, Cappadocia, see it right there. Asia, the Roman province of Asia, and Bithynia. So, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia. This is where Peter was focusing. This was the most Roman part of the Roman empire. This was also the epicenter of what God was doing around the world. This is where the seven churches are that John writes to and that Jesus visits. All of those things are right here in this area. This area where Peter writes received more letters than any other part of the world. There are 14 epistles of the New Testament written to this area. Amazing to think about.
Roman Asia was where the near extinction of Christianity began to unfurl. Remember Nero started it all. He was sporadic. Domitian got it more systematized, and Diocletian tried to and almost succeeded in extinguishing Christianity. What Diocletian did was three things: he got rid of every church building, he got rid of every complete copy of the scripture, and he got rid of every leader of the church. Three things. When you get the leaders and the scriptures and you destroy the meeting places, you are really dealing a blow to the Church. Satan knew that and he used Diocletian. In our Revelation study, you can see an entire lesson on the near extinction of Christianity, I explain that.
Why I’m bringing it up is, see what I wrote. Reflecting Christ in a darkening hostile world of suffering. That’s where we’re headed. Look at this slide. Hard times are on the horizon for us in Christ’s Church. I’m looking forward to next week, Lord willing, which is 2 Peter. When we get to 2 Peter I’m going to answer the question all of you are asking, if you’ve been watching the news lately during the Ukrainian war, what is going on? Russia keeps threatening the United States and Great Britain and Europe. They are talking about their Sarmat missiles. By the way, Sarmat, let me go back here. Let me see Sarmatia. Oh, there it is, right there, see that? Sarmatia is in Russia. The Sarmat missiles are those missiles if you remember, that one of them carries 12 warheads, and those 12 warheads, each one of them is a hundred times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. What they’re saying on the news is that Russia is threatening to destroy the east coast and west coast of the United States and it will only take four missiles, two and two.
Next week as a part of 2 Peter 3, which talks about the end of the world, that’s what 2 Peter’s all about. It’s the ultimate description of what happens between Revelation 20 and Revelation 21, which is the end of the physical world and the complete uncreation of the old world and the recreation and newness of Heaven. What happens in between those two is described for us in 2 Peter 3. I’m going to talk about what might happen to America. Study this, but next week we’re going to have an interesting time. I’m going to tell you that I personally believe as a pastor, as a Bible teacher, as a Bible scholar, and as a servant of the Lord, that hard times are coming for the United States of America. We should get ready for dark times, hostile times, and persecutions. Okay.
Here’s just a quick timeline. Nero executed Peter and Paul before he died in 68. Domitian exiled John. Then here are all of the following emperors that were Christian killers and here is the worst one Diocletian and we cover all that. Let’s go to my Bible and I’m going to start showing you what I copied out of my Bible. I don’t have the camera there, but I’m going to show you printed text. Also, the lessons and principles and we’ll go through those prayers.
The Book of Acts ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome. Sometime after that Luke is written, Paul’s released from prison, fire in Rome, and Peter and Paul are martyred. Then of course the fall of Jerusalem, the temple. Then somewhere right in here is where we find John on Patmos and Jesus comes back to visit and all of those things. That’s what we’re going to see, the context of Peter is after Paul’s journey to Rome when he is writing this.
Here’s my summary. Whoop, it’s only to chapter 4 right there. How to endure dangerous times of hostility and persecution. That’s the focus of the whole Book of 1 Peter, because they were facing it back then. Just like we’re facing it now. The world that Peter served the Lord in was a terrible time in history. Some of the most memorable pages in the history of the Church are from the year 60 to 70. For half those years the hatred and evils of Nero led to, and this is a key with Nero, random acts of fierce persecution. Under Nero, across the city of Rome, believers were killed from the arena to the prisons. For his evening dinner guests Nero would have the followers of Jesus dipped in tar and burned alive on sticks as torches in his imperial gardens. For the bloodthirsty masses at the games, Christians were wrapped in animal skins and chased to death by wild beasts. That’s horrible to even say and think about, but that’s what they went through and hard times for us are coming. The Bible promises it. Remember all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Okay.
Next paragraph. Have you pondered how hard it must have been to be a Christian those 10 years? Something to think about. Yet in that dangerous time to even be a believer, Peter boldly wrote to the Roman world saints about hoping until the end in Jesus. As he did so, Peter had become the most wanted man of his day. Peter demonstrated holy boldness by surfacing to write these two epistles. It’s just such a testimony. Okay.
Now chapter 2 and we’re going to start in verse 1. Okay. We’re around the table now, some of you are leading studies. Bonnie and I just got a text from one of our dear friends who we knew in Michigan and who has moved down south. They saw in our itinerary that we were teaching at a Bible Institute near them, and they texted and said, could you please stop for just an hour? We’re doing your small group study and we want everybody in our house to meet you and there they were, I don’t know, 14 or 15 of them. They had their Bibles, they had their notebooks, they watched the video, and they discussed it. They do the study themselves. Wow.
This is what I did for them and I’m going to do for you. I said, take your Bible. Look at verse 1. “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word.” Therefore, look at what I wrote. Spiritual growth is a choice. My title right here for chapter 2 is How God Grows Me. I do a different title every day that I study a chapter. I change it a little bit, but the one I want you to remember is how God grows me.
This is another one of my titles; God lays down the pathway for spiritual growth for believers. We should be, look at verse 2, as a newborn baby. As a father of eight wonderful children and Bonnie the incredible mom and teacher and nurturer of all those children. I love you, honey. After seeing those eight children grow, one thing I’ll always remember is how much they wanted to be fed in those early days as newborns. They would just scream and yell and turn red and their mouths would be wide open. They’d be in a rabid state until they got fed and then they would be totally relaxed. See what it says, as newborn babes, desire like a baby to be fed. Pause.
If you were at Panera, I would lean across the table with my Bible and say, is that how you would describe your hunger for the Bible? That you’re like a newborn baby that can’t wait for the bottle or to be nursed by mom and as soon as you’re connected, you just relax. That’s the only way to survive what’s coming. That’s why before we get to chapter 4 with the fiery trials, we have to look first at this truth.
Spiritual growth is a choice. It demands hard choices. It’s based on the work of the Gospel, it’s the therefore in the text. Spiritual growth is based on and only possible for those who are genuinely saved by redemption. That’s in chapter 1. They have purified their souls, that’s verse 1:22, and have been born again. Everything is based on chapter 1 so that’s why you can read it this week. Okay.
Secondly, forsaking sin is a battle. See what it says, “laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking.” Wow. Forsaking sin is a battle.
Thirdly, hunger for the Word shows spiritual health. I must want to eat my meal. Did you know there are either healthy Christians or sick Christians? The way you can tell the difference is healthy Christians are hungry for the Word. They are more hungry for the Word than they are for the latest updates from the stock market or Twitter or from Facebook or TikTok or whatever your online social media attachment is. They want to be attached to God. Do you? Anything that takes God’s place, anything that pushes the Bible out of the way is an idol. That’s what we have to each think about. What idols need to be laid aside? I need the Word to grow, and growth only comes via God’s Word. Okay.
In my fifth lesson, look at verse 3. It says, “if indeed you’ve tasted that the Lord is gracious.” Wow. Tasting the Lord. His grace is so satisfying. I can taste God’s grace that draws me back for more. Is that your testimony of His fullness? Have we received grace upon grace? Do you hunger and thirst after Christ and His righteousness? Do you like David say I want to come into Your courts? Paul said I want to know You, Peter said to be like a newborn baby. I hope, I pray, my prayer for you is that this week of all the weeks of the 52, this week, you’ll say, God, I want to hunger for You like a newborn baby and that you start feeling that satisfying grace.
Number six, God has great plans for our life. See this right here? That means MacArthur Study Bible. I clipped out some of the words from the MacArthur study Bible. Let me read them to you. First, I wrote that each of us are part of the Church yet we’re unique. We’re all built together to offer spiritual worship. Old Testament priests and New Testament believers share nine characteristics. That’s in the MacArthur study Bible. You should look at that. It’s a fascinating study.
The main privilege of a priest, however, is access to God offering up spiritual sacrifices. Those are God honoring works that are done by Christ under the direction of the Holy Spirit and guidance of the Word of God. I want to do these. What are they? One, offering the strength of my body, that’s Romans 12. Praising God, that’s what Hebrews 13 says. Doing good, Hebrews says. Sharing my resources.
By the way, I will pause to say that the only way Bonnie and I travel and teach hundreds and hundreds of next generation students is because of you. I never dreamed that those of you that became our Church family that we meet with across the table like this would actually support us to the level that you are. You have made it possible for remote studios. You can’t see it here, but behind me is all the gear that we need; the lights and all these tripods and this desk and these different devices we’re using. All of that, those of you that are part of our team, have provided. The flights. We’re leaving soon. We’re going back to repack. We spend three weeks at home, praise God, at our ministry center in Colorado, the headquarters where DTBM is. We’re going to be there for three weeks and then we load up and we go out of the country, and we’ll be back and forth doing summer conferences.
Then we go to the United Kingdom. I can’t wait. We’re going to be, Lord willing, speaking at a refugee center where they have new believers from, I think 17, 19, or 21 different countries around the world. Then we go from there to Italy where we’re going to be teaching The Life and Letters of Paul, the 13 epistles. Then we go to Greece and everywhere we go there are refugees, there are new believers. There are training centers for next generation missionaries. Then we go on from there to East Asia and we’re going to round out till Thanksgiving. We’re gone September, October, and November and we’re training the next generation that are actually in training centers and then going back. They’re not trying to get educated and go to America and get rich. They’re going back to the countries they’re coming from.
In my last class there we had someone from mainland China. We had someone from Myanmar. We had someone from India. We had someone from Bhutan. We had someone from Japan, Canada, Korea, Australia, Singapore, I can’t even think of all of them, Malaysia, but you know what these are? They’re Asians that want to reach Asia. They’re Africans that want to reach Africa. They’re Europeans that want to reach Europe. They’re South Americans that want to reach South America. There are North Americans that want to reach their own in North America. You, look at this, share your resources. I want to thank you, every one of you, number one for praying for us, because we’ve seen the Lord answer your prayers. We’ve had all kinds of difficulties; mechanical difficulty, flight difficulty, COVID difficulty, testing difficulties, and technical difficulties.
In one of the places I taught, I was speaking and the lights went out, the computer went off, and the sound system went off. I said, most of you have phones out there. If you have a phone, turn on your flashlight or turn on your screen and shake it so I can see. All over the auditorium, they said we can hear you. I went on for the next half hour and taught the class just with the emergency light shining down on my Bible. Do you know what they told me? I got so many notes from those students. They said I will never forget that class. It was just like the 1st century. We didn’t have any electronics. We didn’t have electricity. We didn’t have a sound system. We didn’t have computers. We just had the Word of God.
Thanks for sending us. Thanks for upholding us. Thanks for supporting us. Any of you that maybe are new, down in the description of this video you can see a little link to our website, our Discover the Book website and it shows how you could partner with us. I would love for some of you to actually invest in a missionary. Everyone should support a missionary that’s going out from where they are to the furthest ends of the Earth. We’re only part of hundreds and hundreds of good faithful Bible teaching missionaries all over the world, but if you don’t know one, we would like to be your first missionary that you personally invest in their ministry.
Back to the sheep, number five, bringing people to Christ. We’re supposed to evangelize, and I have many opportunities to do that. All of us should be sharing the Gospel, sharing Gospel tracts. We sacrifice our desires for others, and we pray. Okay.
The seventh lesson is God designed me to be His priest. That speaks of holiness and sacrifice and surrender and a life focus.
Number eight. Look at this. This is another time I would lean across the table. Look at what it says in verse 11, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” Abstain. Turn away from fleshly lusts that war against the soul. Lusts are always trying to gain an opportunity to defeat me. We’re sojourners and pilgrims. Then from the MacArthur study Bible, I wrote Peter called his readers to a righteous life in a hostile world. Christians are foreigners in a secular society. Our citizenship is in Heaven and there are three perspectives. This is something John MacArthur wrote in his study Bible. We’re pilgrims, we’re citizens and we’re servants. Abstain would be better translated, hold yourself away from fleshly lusts. In order to have an impact on the world for God, Christians have to discipline themselves in an inward and private way by avoiding the desires of the fallen nature. You can look at Galatians 5.
By the way, fleshly lusts include much more than sexual temptations. You understand that. It’s pride. It’s impatience. It’s a lack of tenderheartedness. It’s a lack of compassion. All of those are fleshly lusts. Materialism, all those things, wanting to watch videos and play games and listen to music rather than being in the Word like a newborn babe, those are all fleshly lusts that we have to push aside.
Look at this, they war against the soul. War, that’s the Greek word strateuomai which means to carry on a military campaign. Fleshly lusts are personified as if they were an army of rebels or guerillas incessantly searching out and trying to destroy a Christian’s joy, our peace, and our usefulness. Say no to sin and you’ll feel the joy of the grace of God through the Spirit of God. Learn to say no by habit. Learn to say no by faith. Learn to say no with longer and longer times of denying those sins that so easily beset us. Lust is always trying to ambush me, great study for this week.
Number nine, live as ideal citizens. We should be the kind of people our neighbors wish they could be like, not someone they don’t like. We’re supposed to be winsome, model citizens for God, not militant, but Christlike.
Number 10. Expect to suffer persecution. Look at what Peter said in verse 18, “be submissive to your masters.” It says in verse 23, “when He was reviled, [He] did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten” on and on. That’s a great section about suffering and God’s plan for us. Okay.
This is only the first chapter and I see we’re on minute 43. We’re supposed to be done in an hour so I’m going to go really fast, but let me pray this application prayer. Lord, since You saved me, now I want to abandon anything that displeases You. I love the taste of Your grace. I want to grow. Help me by Your grace to lay aside all my sinful ways, build my living stone into helping Your Church to grow, and offer worship to You. I am Your priest. I am abstaining from lusts, and I am submitting to You. For Jesus’s sake. Amen. That’s actually the prayer I wrote right here in my journal and typed out for you to see after I read this chapter. Okay.
Chapter 3, my submissiveness and suffering. This is my 11th lesson, 10 in chapter 2. Look at verse 1, Peter said this, “Wives, likewise, be submissive your own husbands.” If you could see my Bible clearly, you’d see I’ve circled submit in chapter 2:13, then again, submissive in chapter 2:18 and then a form of it is in verse 25. Then verse 1 says, “likewise, be submissive.” What you see there is submission starts way back in chapter 2 and now it’s being applied.
Look at this, God designed gender specific roles. The idea of submission is tied back to chapter 2 verses 13 and 18. We are to be following our biblical roles and relationships. God has a gender specific role for me as a man and He has a different gender specific role for any woman and wife and mother as it’s different from a man and a husband and a father. There are gender specific roles in Ephesians 5, you can go back to that 52 Greatest Chapters lesson on that. I went through all of those parts of God. Also, His design in 1 Corinthians 11 of roles and how there’s a role within the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Church. Then the churches submit to Christ, even so as the men submit to Christ the women submit to their husbands. All that we’ve covered, but God has gender specific roles. Remember that, study that, and read the footnotes in your study Bible.
God explains true beauty. Look at what it says, “be submissive to your own husbands.” This is primarily to women that had these pagan husbands or carnal husbands. “Even if some do not obey the word,” that could be a pagan or a husband that’s a Christian, but he’s not surrendered. That “they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives.” Do you know what it says? It says a woman has a unique ability to incredibly influence her husband by not saying a word, but by submitting to him in everything, except when he tells her to do something wrong biblically. You submitting to him as your husband doesn’t mean you don’t talk it over and it doesn’t mean that you don’t share your ideas, but the final say is him. If, without a word, you don’t resist him and nag and everything God says that He will do an amazing work in his heart. We covered that in Ephesians 5.
Look at God’s charge to husbands. This is the big one. Husbands are charged, look at verse 7, “Husbands, likewise, dwell with [your wife] with understanding, giving honor to your wife, as the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.” What he is talking about there is an incredible power of a husband and wife who know the Lord and who agree in prayer.
This is why all those wives, remember I told you a while back at the beginning of this class, that all these wives of the men that were in my Bible study were coming up saying, what are you telling my husband to do? He’s changing. He looks at me when we talk. He listens to me. He started to write down things he found out about me.
Let me read through this. I’ll show you some ideas. Husbands are charged with understanding and honoring their wives. We are weak, that’s what it says, and they are the weaker. That’s a comparative degree. I’m weak, Bonnie’s weaker, but we’re both weak. I’m weak, she’s weaker. It’s a comparative degree, but I’m supposed to honor her and understand her. Here’s a practical tip. Do the Ephesians 5 card with her and start a discovery journal where you’ve discovered things about your wife.
Because we travel, I add to my notes. I’m always writing down new things I learn about Bonnie. I love to be with a group of people and listen to her talk. She’ll say to someone, I’ve always wanted to do this!… Or, I love… Or, I’ll never forget. Always… Never… Whenever I hear that stuff quickly I get this out and I’ve learned everything about her favorite things that she loves and things she doesn’t love and things that she doesn’t want to do and does want to do and what she likes to eat and where she likes to go and her favorite scripture and her favorite songs and her favorite colors and all those kind of things.
Do you know what that means? God wants us to act like we’re still dating our wives. Do you know what I tell people? I’ve never stopped dating Bonnie. I hope that the Lord, I’ve already asked Him for a late checkout. I say, I want to stay as long as I can on this Earth with my wonderful wife. I’ve asked Him, if He allows any chasing in Heaven, I want to chase Bonnie because I love her. Do you know what the Bible says? He charges us.
What’s the Ephesians 5 card? Right here is a picture. This is our website, Discover the Book. Resources is one of the tabs. It says this at the top “free downloadable resources.” Here are those 108 verses every Christian should know. Those of you who have asked me all about the Roman Catholic church, Titus 2 men and women, but here’s what I’m talking about right now. That is a little card. It fits in your wallet. It’s a credit card sized card that I keep in my wallet, and I stick it into my wallet and I use it with Bonnie. What it is, is the goals and desires of an Ephesians 5 husband and the goals and desires of an Ephesians 5 wife. I first tell Bonnie, I repeat to her those affirmations that I want to, Ephesians 5, love you as the Lord. I want to be leading you like Christ leads, I want to be subject to Christ, and I want you to follow me as I follow Christ.
Let me tell you a quick story. We’re at 49 minutes. Bonnie and I were invited by a Christian foundation to go to Mexico City. We went and it was the time of our life, and it was incredible. It was a church planter’s conference. There were 250 of them, but you know what they asked us to do? This Ephesians 5 card, right there. They said that they’re so busy serving the Lord that their marriages are strained.
What I had them do through an interpreter is I had the men and women stand with Ephesians 5 and affirm the seven affirmations of an Ephesians 5 husband. You need to get the card and find out what they are, and the seven affirmations of an Ephesians 5 wife. I had them stand facing each other like this. I told all 250, I said in English, okay, let’s all stand, so the translator said it in Spanish. He looked at me curiously, and I said, now turn and face one another. He said that to them and he looked at me curiously. I said, now men, I want you to repeat these seven affirmations to your wife. The translator said to me in English they won’t do it. I said, what? He said I already have read what you’re going to say. He says Mexican men do not say that, even Christians, to their wives. Out loud, that I want to love you and serve you and I want to be your closest and dearest friend? They would never say stuff like that. I said, just translate. He said, no.
I’d never argued with my translator. I said, if you don’t, I had the cards translated in Spanish, I’m going to pass them out and just have them read it. Finally, he said okay, but they won’t do it. I started and the men looked at their wives and they said, I want to love you and serve you with all my heart as Christ loves and serves the Church. That was number one. Number two, number three, they went through them. The auditorium had can lights, the ones that shoot straight down, and as I was speaking all the men and women had shadows, but I could see the women’s faces with silver lines. Tears were running down their faces.
At the break, the women mobbed Bonnie, and Bonnie got to teach them. I could tell you stories about her. We have seen God do so many things it’s hard to not tell you all these stories, but they mobbed her, and you know what they said to her? One of the women said my husband, we’ve been married 3 decades, 30 years, has never said anything like that to me ever in our marriage. She said I don’t even care if he doesn’t mean it, just hearing him say it. She had tears running down her face. She said, just hearing him say it is the greatest thing.
Do you know what God wants? If you’re a godly husband, get that card there, that Ephesians 5 card in the left corner and print that thing out, put it in your wallet, and take your wife on a date. Surprise her and affirm all of them or just one of them and say, by God’s grace, I want to do this in our marriage. That’s why those women were coming to me in the hallway. They said my husband is acting so differently. Okay.
Number 14, we’re called to bless. There are five quick commands from God here; to do good, seek peace, pursue peace, and be aware of God’s ears, eyes, and face. That’s verses 10 through 12. So that’s 14 and 15. We’re supposed to expect suffering. See what it says in 3:13? “Who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed.” Be willing to suffer, be ready to suffer.
Number 17, salvation is amazing. All of this is from the MacArthur study Bible. You just need to read this section because it covers questions about the text. What is this about the days of Noah and the demons that are involved in this horrible perversion? What does it mean by being saved by water and baptism saves us? What is all this about? Peter explains that salvation is like the ark and the people in the ark were saved. The people out of the ark were drowned by the water. He said baptism doesn’t save you anymore than the flood water saved the people there. What baptism is, it’s the answer of a heart. It’s an act of obedience. It doesn’t wash away sins. It’s an act of obedience. Read that section of the MacArthur Study Bible.
This is my prayer for chapter 3. Lord, I want to line up behind You and every other authority You’ve placed in my life. Thank You for my godly and beautiful in Your sight wife, that Bonnie is beautiful in Your sight and mine. Help me to understand Bonnie more and more every day. Help me to be compassionate. Help me to be a blessing as I turn from evil and always turn toward You for Jesus’s sake. Amen.
Chapter 3, now we’re on chapter 4 really quickly. Jesus wants us to wear our helmets. We’re supposed to arm ourselves with the mind of Christ, that’s in verse 1. There are only two choices on the shelf, choosing the flesh. Remember, you’ve heard me say this, only two choices on the shelf: pleasing God or pleasing self.
Pagans cannot understand us. See what it says in chapter 4. It says in verses 4 through 6, “In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them.” Your old pagan friends, when you get saved, they think you’re crazy. They can’t understand salvation and they are into dissipation. You can read it; this is a great section. This is another quote from the MacArthur study Bible. Read the note on verses 4, 5, and 6. It’s wonderful to apply.
Get serious about eternity. See what it says in verse 7, “The end of all things is at hand.” Be serious and watchful; that’s Peter’s expression of how to grow in our prayer life. This is great, MacArthur covers this, but I’ll tell you what, Peter reduces down all spiritual gifts to two, speaking and serving. There are all these spiritual gift lists. You can read about them in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, but the bottom line is God wants us to be speaking for Him and serving Him. Some people do more serving than speaking. Some people do more speaking than serving, but all of us are supposed to be doing a little of both. Okay. That’s what Peter says.
Here’s the ending, 1st century believers faced horrible tortures. This is what Peter said in verse 12, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial.” This phrase in verse 12 could be read as the painful trial that burns among you. The original readers would’ve heard this as martyrdom, being burned at the stake. It could describe the fact that followers of Jesus in the city of Rome, the place where Peter may have lived as he wrote this, were being dragged from their families, dipped in tar, and used as living torches. They were facing horrible tortures. It could have been even dying at the stake, but they experienced verse 13, divine comfort.
Look what Peter says, “but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.” Our suffering is the same kind of thing Christ received and therefore in some sense suffering is an indication that we identify with Christ. The word in verse 12, partake, is taken from the word koinōneō. We share in fellowship. At the end of this verse, we see Peter referring to exceeding joy. Reminded of biblical joy in its deepest sense is profound confidence that God is in control of every part of our life, even the painful parts.
Then look at verse 19. 1st century believers know that God allows no accidents. Here’s what the scriptures say. “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.” Listen, we’re near the end. In this one verse, we can see the content of the entire letter of 1 Peter summarized. We, as believers, do not suffer accidentally, nor do we go through affliction because of some irresistible forces of fate. Rather each time that we suffer it’s always and only according to God’s will. That’s why we want to daily renew our surrender to God.
I would lean across and I’d say, did you like me this morning in the dark surrender to God? I got up and stood in that circle and I said, Lord, I am offering myself back to You. I want You to control me and lead me. Remember what we’ve already studied from the Lord’s prayer? I want to surrender to You. We renew our daily surrender. The word Peter used, commit, literally means entrust yourself for safekeeping. Listen, if our God can oversee countless galaxies, and the constant ebb, and flow of the tides of the sea, He’s certainly able to personally walk me through any trial I’ll face in my lifetime. Do you believe that? That’s what Peter was begging those Early Church followers of Christ to believe and that’s what He is still begging us by His Spirit to believe.
Here’s my prayer for chapter 4. By the way, before I pray it, things didn’t get better for these early believers. After they got a letter from God written down by Peter things only got worse for the next 200 years. They were suffering. They lost their freedom. They lost their security on Earth and for some, they lost their lives. Reflect Christ in a darkening hostile world of suffering. It’s coming. All that are godly in Christ Jesus are going to suffer. It’s coming. I think it’s coming sooner than you think to America.
Here’s my prayer. Lord, give me that armed mind that ceases from sin so that I can do the will of You, my God. Train me in serious and watchful prayer as I speak for You and serve in Your power. As the End of Days come, I trust You as my faithful Creator. For Jesus’s sake. Amen.
Real quickly, two final challenges. Don’t do this alone. If you’re married, share it with your wife. If you’re a child, share with your peers. If you have any friends at work or at school or in your dorm or wherever you are, tell them I’ve started a new Bible study and I need someone to share what I’ve found. Let me share my findings and my application prayer. Did you know I’ve had people on airplanes that I just met ask me to share what I’m finding? I’ve had people ask me in Starbucks when they see me underline, they say, what are you doing? Tell me what you found.
You need to start a small group. You need to find someone that you will grow together with in Christ and be accountable to and say I’m in the Word every day, are you in the Word every day? Are you resisting the terrorist plot of lust against you? That’s trying to strateuomai, to get you into things like we already studied. You need someone. Find someone you can share your findings and application prayer with.
Number two, pray for us. There’s my wonderful wife Bonnie. We’re coming home for three weeks and then we’re going back off. We’ll be teaching in Europe. We’re going to be in East Asia. We’re going to have people in our classes from the Arab world, from Sub-Saharan Africa. We’re going to be teaching people from Europe, Africa, and Asia in the last quarter of this year. Thank you for praying for us. You can download this card, it’s on our website, stick it in your Bible and pray for us. That’s my challenge for you.
For this week read 1 Peter 2, 3, and 4. Next week, the end of the world. I’m going to even talk about what I believe possibly could be the reason we don’t see America in Bible prophecy. It’s very sobering, but until then, focus on how to reflect Christ in a darkening hostile world and have a great week in 1 Peter 2 and share it with someone. See you back next week, Lord willing. God bless you.