Participants: Tom Shepherd & Deyvy Rodriguez
Series Code: PBOTB
Program Code: PBOTB00002B
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00:01 Welcome back again, friends. This is "The Books of the Book."
00:04 And with us is Dr. Tom Shepherd. 00:06 He joins us from Andrews University. 00:08 Dr. Shepherd, you were saying 00:10 that these people were different. 00:12 They did not fit into these groups of people. 00:16 Can you share more about that? Right. 00:18 Yeah, the Christian faith had changed them. 00:21 In fact, we want to look at this. 00:22 Let's open our Bibles to 1 Peter 1 00:24 and we want to read verses 1 and 2 of 1 Peter 1. 00:29 Okay, it says, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, 00:32 to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, 00:35 Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 00:38 elect according to the foreknowledge 00:40 of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, 00:44 for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. 00:49 Grace to you and peace be multiplied." 00:52 All right. This is the very opening of the book. 00:54 In New Testament epistles it's always important to look 00:57 at the opening of the book. 00:59 Because in the opening of the book 01:00 is where the concepts and the themes 01:04 of the book are presented, all right. 01:06 And Peter begins this right from the very get go. 01:10 He says who he is, is very typical 01:13 of letter writing in that day. 01:15 He says who its recipients are 01:17 and that's also very typical of letter writing of that day. 01:20 And then he says-- he describes them. 01:23 You use the term-- my Bible I'm using the ESV, 01:26 the English Standard Version. 01:28 It says, "elect exiles." What does yours call? 01:30 Pilgrims. Pilgrims. 01:32 Yeah. Yeah-- 01:33 A foreigner Is that-- would that be a-- 01:35 Foreigners, yes. 01:36 But there's two terms actually. 01:38 Does it just use the word pilgrims? 01:39 "To the pilgrims of the dispersion." 01:41 Uh, okay. 01:42 Yeah there's actually two terms 01:44 that are put together here in Greek. 01:47 And one is this concept of being elect or chosen. 01:52 And the other is the idea of being a stranger 01:56 or a pilgrim or an exile or something like that. 02:00 So we think first of the idea of being chosen or elect. 02:06 Many countries have elections. 02:08 And what-- so what happens 02:10 when you're having an election is what you do. 02:12 You choose your leader, right? You vote, okay. 02:16 Well, this election is not like that. 02:20 This is God choosing you. So God gets to vote. 02:24 God gets to vote. He makes the choice. 02:26 Now some people get the idea under Biblical election 02:30 that some people are predestined to be saved 02:32 and others are predestined to be lost. 02:36 But of course, 2 Peter written by our same apostle will say 02:40 that God is not willing that anyone should perish 02:42 but they all should come to repentance. 02:44 So the chosen is--we'll explain this a bit more as we go along, 02:49 its linkage to the will of God and how people respond. 02:54 But people have free choice in this book. 02:56 We're gonna see that over and over 02:58 that people have the ability to change, to choose. 03:02 So this being chosen is a concept that is tied 03:07 into the Old Testament ideas about God choosing Israel. 03:13 You know, He chooses Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. 03:17 And He brings the people out of Egypt 03:20 and at Sinai He sets up a covenant with them. 03:23 They become His people. 03:26 Peter is gonna tie into all those ideas and link it in 03:31 to this Christian community, this household of faith 03:34 as we might say that's so important. 03:36 And doesn't Jesus say, "you did not choose me, 03:38 I choose you?" Yes. Okay. 03:40 Right, so again that linkage into the teachings of Jesus. 03:45 Now why does Peter call them elect? 03:48 Yeah, so they are elect. 03:50 They are the special group 03:52 because they have entered the covenant with God. 03:56 They have become His children. 03:58 And He is--notice it says He is their father, all right? 04:02 So that is a very positive kind of terminology, 04:08 a positive way of talking about somebody. 04:11 If you're chosen, you know, if somebody choose you 04:14 to get to go to the White House or something-- 04:19 I've been specially chosen to do this, you know? 04:21 And so you would be-- that would be 04:24 a very positive honor to you. 04:27 But connected with this is this word stranger. 04:32 And I know what it's like to be a stranger and a foreigner. 04:36 My wife and I were missionaries in Malawi, Africa, 04:38 but we're also missionaries in Brazil in South America. 04:42 And when you're foreigner in the land 04:44 where they don't talk your mother tongue, 04:47 it's really challenging, you know, just to find out 04:51 where the food can be, where's the bank, 04:54 you know, where's the bathroom. 04:55 I mean, you know, there's all kinds of things 04:57 where it can be very challenging in order to live. 05:01 So that's a very negative kind of a term. 05:06 That's a term that puts you down. 05:08 So you have an oxymoron. 05:11 You have a very positive term 05:13 connected with the very negative term. 05:15 And oxymoron is when two opposites are combined together. 05:18 Like if we said an innocent guilt 05:21 or Shakespeare's words "parting is such sweet sorrow." 05:26 How can sorrow be sweet? That's right. 05:27 Yeah, so how can somebody who's elect be a stranger? 05:33 So that we'll unpack as we go through looking at this book. 05:39 The concept of stranger is linked 05:41 with the ethical language of the Book of Peter. 05:44 Some people think that when he says strangers 05:46 he just means that they were foreigners. 05:49 They didn't come from Cappadocia or Asia or something. 05:52 They were imports from some place else. 05:55 But the problem with that is whenever you read 05:59 the book of 1 Peter when he talks about this term, 06:03 and he uses it several times, 06:05 he always links it up with ethical language 06:08 over theological language. 06:10 He imbues it with-- he seems to imbue it 06:13 with theological and ethical ideas. 06:16 Therefore, he's probably talking metaphorically 06:20 that we're strangers. 06:22 We talk about this in the church today. 06:24 We'll say, "I'm a pilgrim 06:26 or I'm a stranger in this world." 06:28 Our citizenship is in heaven. 06:30 Our citizenship is in heaven, not in this earth. 06:33 And you know, it's just applying the message, 06:35 just briefly thinking for a moment 06:37 to think of the application of this method--message. 06:41 You think and you say, 06:42 "okay, what makes me different from the world around me? 06:47 What makes me a stranger in this world? 06:50 And makes me, you know, like Jesus 06:54 different from the world around me?" 06:56 Now of course, we, in many places, 06:58 live in a Christian culture so we may not 07:00 standout quite so much. 07:02 But I dare say that Seventh-day Adventist 07:04 have a number of things that make them standout. 07:06 One is the Sabbath, of course, that makes us really different. 07:11 And we can relate pretty well to being strangers to this idea. 07:14 But we better press on. 07:15 You know, I notice here that there are three verse 07:18 linked up with God, the Spirit, and Jesus 07:20 and that those three words are for knowledge, 07:23 sanctification, the sprinkling of the blood. 07:27 Sounds just kind of difficult. 07:29 Can you explain what does this mean? Yeah. 07:31 First of all we notice that there is God, the Father 07:34 with the Spirit and Jesus Christ. 07:36 That's the-- Trini... 07:38 The Trinity, yeah. 07:39 Here's one of those places in the New Testament 07:41 where this concept, I mean, the word Trinity is never used. 07:45 But you have these three members of the Godhead 07:47 working together for our salvation 07:49 and then each have a part to play. 07:52 Somebody says, "ah, I'm not so sure that 07:55 that's really Trinitarian language. 07:58 Is there any other evidence for that?" 08:00 Well, as we will continue to study 08:02 and once we read further into this first chapter, 08:05 the first part talks about God, the Father. 08:08 The second part talks about Jesus Christ. 08:10 And the third part talks about the Holy Spirit. 08:12 So they are mentioned in this second verse of the book 08:16 and then their roles are expounded and explained 08:19 and unwrapped in the following verses. 08:22 So yes, it is very much Trinitarian language. 08:25 It is very much kind of a planned out expression 08:29 that he is putting forth here. 08:30 Now what he does is he ties each of these individuals 08:34 of the Godhead to a different idea. 08:36 He talks about the foreknowledge of God, the Father. 08:40 He talks about sanctification of the spirit and then he says 08:43 for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling with His blood. 08:47 Let's start with foreknowledge, okay. 08:50 This is said to be in accordance with the foreknowledge of God. 08:54 Now remember he's talking about election. 08:57 He's talking about us being God's chosen people. 09:00 How did that take place? 09:02 The three members of the Godhead were each involved 09:05 in this process of these people becoming Christians, 09:08 of them becoming linked to Him in a special way, 09:11 in a special covenant with Him, okay? 09:13 So the first is according to the foreknowledge of God. 09:16 God knows everything. 09:19 Before it happens He knows what's going to take place. 09:23 His foreknowledge, He foresees everything that will take-- 09:26 now that doesn't mean that He takes and rules, 09:30 you know, overrules our will. 09:32 He has given us the freedom of choice, 09:34 but He knows everything that will take place. 09:37 So according to His foreknowledge, 09:40 seen in His great eternity 09:42 all that will take place, He elects us. 09:46 He chooses us to be His children. 09:49 Next comes the phraseology, sanctification of the spirit. 09:53 What kind of words do you think of 09:55 when you think of the word sanctification? 09:58 Holiness. Holiness, certainly. 10:00 Being separate. Being separate, yeah. 10:02 Separated for God's use, all right. 10:05 This is what they did. 10:07 The concept of holiness is a big idea in the Bible. 10:11 And one of the easiest ways to think of it 10:13 is anything that is connected with God is holy. 10:19 So anything that is connected to God is holy. 10:22 You think when He meets Moses, 10:24 He says to him at the burning bush, 10:26 He says, "take off your shoes, because"-- 10:29 The ground... The ground... 10:30 Is holy. Is holy. 10:32 What made the ground holy? 10:33 God's presence. God's presence. 10:35 He is there in the bush and that makes the ground holy. 10:37 He's in the temple, that makes the temple holy. 10:40 Now the Spirit comes into our life 10:42 and that's what sanctifies us, 10:44 that separates us for God, for God's use. 10:47 Now the idea of holiness we will unpack 10:49 as we go through this book. 10:51 It is also connected with the idea of purity, 10:54 being like God, being holy, being separate, 10:57 not following the world's ways. 10:59 Holiness is the separateness from the world's ways. 11:03 Now you can think of sanctification 11:06 as something that happens just like that. 11:09 You're set apart to be used by God. 11:11 But you can also think of it as that purifying word 11:14 that is--Ellen White says "is the work of a lifetime." 11:18 Okay, so that sanctifying, holifying work, 11:21 that work of putting you apart, 11:23 that's the work of the Sprit in the life. 11:25 Sanctification by the Spirit of God. 11:28 Then we come to the last phrase and it kind of confuses people, 11:31 'cause it says, "for obedience 11:32 and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus." 11:34 Let me ask you a question. 11:35 Which comes first, justification or sanctification? 11:40 Well, justification. You would say justification. 11:43 I would say so. That seems to be right answer. 11:46 But Peter seems to put it backwards. 11:48 He says obedience, you know, sanctification kind of things 11:51 and then sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. 11:53 How can that be? 11:55 Well, actually what he's referring to 11:57 is a passage of scripture. 11:59 We don't have time to read it right now. 12:01 But a passage of scripture in Exodus 24:3-8, 12:05 where Moses comes down from the mountain of Sinai 12:09 and he says to the-- he's going to-- 12:12 he says God wants to make a covenant with you. 12:15 He has these rules for you to obey. 12:17 And then the people say, "all that the Lord has said, 12:20 we will do." We will obey the Lord." 12:22 Then it says, Moses takes and sprinkles them 12:25 with the blood of the covenant, all right. 12:28 So this whole thing here 12:30 and particularly this last part obedience and sprinkling 12:32 is all of this covenant making with God. 12:35 God choosing them as His people 12:37 and then becoming God's people through God's foreknowledge, 12:41 though the sanctifying work of the Spirit, 12:43 through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ 12:46 and their commitment to follow Him. 12:48 That's what it means to be chosen and elect. 12:52 Well, I take motivation, I take courage 12:55 that God has chosen me. Yes. 12:57 He's chosen you and He's chosen each of our viewers as well. 13:00 Dr. Shepherd, to wrap up our--this study, 13:03 what is it that that you'd like to tell 13:05 our listening audience or viewers? 13:08 We've seen in these last-- in this verse, 13:11 a beautiful, beautiful expression 13:13 of how God is choosing your life 13:16 if you will respond to Him. 13:17 The Trinity is working together to save you, to save me. 13:22 And if we will respond we can have this wonderful salvation. 13:25 Thank you, Dr. Shepherd. 13:27 And thank you to listening friends. 13:28 God bless you, till next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17