Participants: Tom Shepherd & Deyvy Rodriguez
Series Code: PBOTB
Program Code: PBOTB00003A
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00:22 Hello and welcome to "Books of the Book."
00:25 My name is Deyvy Rodriguez and with us is Dr. Tom Shepherd, 00:29 he's currently a Professor 00:30 of New Testament Interpretation at Andrews University. 00:33 We are studying the writings of the Apostle Peter. 00:37 Dr. Shepherd, and the last time we were studying here, 00:41 we talked about how God chose us. 00:43 We didn't choose Him, He chose us. 00:45 And also how the Trinity God, the Father, the Son 00:48 and the Holy Spirit are working together to save us. 00:52 How does Peter unpack this? 00:54 All right, so let's turn to the Book of 1 Peter. 00:57 In these studies, we're gonna read through 01:00 the entire Book of 1 Peter and the entire Book of 2 Peter. 01:04 I tell people in when I teach Sabbath school, 01:07 if we do nothing else, we should open the Bible. 01:09 And we should read the word of God. 01:10 Okay. I think that's important. 01:12 So now we're gonna start in 1 Peter 1:3 through 9. 01:16 I'm reading the English Standard Version. 01:19 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! 01:23 According to his great mercy, he has caused us 01:26 to be born again to a living hope 01:29 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 01:32 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, 01:37 and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 01:41 who by God's power are being guarded through faith 01:44 for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 01:49 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, 01:52 if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 01:57 so that the tested genuineness of your faith, 02:00 more precious than gold that perishes 02:03 though it is tested by fire, 02:05 may be found to result in praise and glory 02:09 and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 02:13 Though you have not seen him, you love him. 02:16 Though you do not now see him, 02:18 you believe in him and rejoice with joy 02:20 that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 02:23 obtaining the outcome of your faith, 02:26 the salvation of your souls." 02:30 So we look at the beginning of this, 02:32 the very first word that Peter uses in verse 3 02:36 is the word "Blessed." 02:39 "Blessed be the God and father of our lord Jesus Christ!" 02:43 Now I don't know, it's funny at least in our church, 02:48 this isn't words that we usually say. 02:51 Blessed be God, you know. 02:54 What exactly is going on here, 02:57 it's actually an Old Testament way of talking. 03:01 The Hebrew term is berakah, the blessing. 03:05 And it was to praise God, 03:08 to praise God for blessings that you had received. 03:13 You thank Him because He gave you life. 03:15 You thank Him because He gave you family. 03:18 He created the world, 03:19 you know, there's all these different things. 03:21 They are praising God for the things that He has done. 03:24 Now the question is 03:27 what is the blessing that we have received? 03:29 What did you notice? 03:32 Well, "According to his abundant mercy 03:33 has begotten us again to a living hope 03:37 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 03:39 Yeah. 03:41 Okay, so that's a new birth experience, isn't that? 03:46 It sounds like a new birth. Yeah, to be-- 03:48 "Begotten us again." To be born again. 03:51 It almost sounds like the conversation 03:52 Jesus had with Nicodemus. 03:54 Nicodemus, in fact, let's turn over there. 03:56 Okay. To John 3:3 to 8. 03:58 I read the first one, you read this one. 04:00 John 3:3 to 8. 04:05 "Jesus answered him and said to him, 04:06 "Most assuredly I say to you unless one is born again, 04:10 he cannot see the kingdom of God." 04:13 Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man can be born 04:15 when he's old. 04:17 Can he enter a second time 04:18 into his mother's womb and be born?" 04:21 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly I say to you, 04:25 unless one is born of water and the Spirit, 04:28 he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 04:30 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, 04:33 and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. 04:36 Do not marvel that I say to you, 04:39 'You must be born again.' 04:40 The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it. 04:44 But cannot tell where it comes from 04:47 and where it goes. 04:48 So everyone who is born, so as everyone 04:51 who is born of the Spirit." 04:52 All right, now we don't have time to unpack all of this. 04:55 But this is interesting conversation 04:57 that Jesus had with Nicodemus. 05:00 And the thing that is quite interesting here 05:02 is that there is a play on words several times. 05:07 One that a lot of people recognize 05:09 is down in verse 8. 05:10 He uses the word "Wind." 05:12 Well, the word wind in Greek is also the word Spirit. 05:17 So the wind blows where it wishes and you don't know, 05:21 so is the spirit, it's the same word you see. 05:24 Well, the interesting thing about being born again 05:27 in verse 3 is that the word "again" 05:31 also means from above. 05:35 Being born from above. 05:36 From above, that means God has given you 05:39 this birth experience, this new birth experience. 05:43 Now which way did Nicodemus take it? 05:46 Did he take it to mean from above or again? 05:50 Again. Yeah. 05:51 Because he asked a question, how can a man 05:54 return to his mother's womb and be born again?" 05:56 So he was thinking karno. 05:58 Yeah, no, this kind of interesting, 06:00 why would he think that way? 06:04 Why would he, you know, say, a man can't be born again, 06:09 he can't go back into his mother's womb, 06:11 and you know, be born a second time, can he? 06:15 And it's interesting because Nicodemus himself 06:17 was a professor at religion, you know. 06:22 Why he would ask something like that, 06:23 you would think he knows what Jesus is talking about. 06:26 He does know what Jesus is talking about. 06:29 What he didn't like was 06:30 that Jesus was saying that he needed it. 06:34 Because he was a professor, you know-- 06:37 He was talking to his heart. 06:39 Yeah. Let me tell you about it. 06:40 Yeah, it was a heart question, that's right. 06:42 And he was applying it to his heart. 06:44 So it's kind of ironic in a sense 06:45 when we say or that you must be born again, 06:48 we are using Nicodemus' words instead of Jesus' words 06:52 that you must be born form above. 06:54 But still it's that birth experience, 06:56 spiritual birth experience that he's talking about. 06:58 He says of being born of water, 07:00 that's baptism and the Spirit, 07:02 that's the Holy Spirit working in your life, 07:04 sanctifying you, cleansing you 07:05 of that all the way of life. 07:07 So if we go back to Peter now. Okay. 07:10 And he says, "Blessed be the God 07:12 and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 07:14 According to his great mercy, 07:16 he has caused us to be born again." 07:19 He's caused us to be born again. 07:20 Now here's the question. 07:22 When did that rebirth experience 07:24 happened for the people that Peter is writing to? 07:28 That's a good question. 07:29 Maybe you can answer that question. 07:32 Well, if I say, if I put it in to their past, 07:37 their present, or their future, 07:38 what would it be? Their past. 07:42 Their past, because he's right, he gave and he says, 07:44 you know, he gave us, he has caused us 07:48 to be born again to a living hope. 07:50 So that is an experience of their past, okay. 07:55 Now so, just to keep that in mind, 07:57 now he's talked about something 07:59 that has happened in their past. 08:03 Now if we keep looking in the verse, 08:05 he keeps going and he says, "Born unto a living hope 08:11 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 08:14 Just like Jesus was raised from the dead. 08:19 He had new life come into him. 08:21 God raised him from the dead. 08:24 So God by the resurrection of Jesus, 08:27 notice here, through the resurrection 08:28 of Jesus Christ from the dead. 08:29 Notice, he says that phrase 08:31 through the resurrection of Jesus. 08:33 That that's how you and I got that new birth experience too. 08:37 That new life came into our lives 08:41 through the resurrection of Jesus. 08:42 So you start thinking about this and you think about baptism 08:45 and how baptism is a sign, a symbol of the death, 08:50 the burial and the resurrection of Jesus. 08:53 And so when you're born again, when you're baptized, 08:56 then you enter into that salvation experience. 08:59 That's the kind of thing that Peter is talking about here. 09:02 But he uses the word "Hope." 09:07 When you think of the word hope, 09:09 what do you think of? 09:10 I think of I have-- I can take courage 09:14 that there is a solution to may be a problem that I have. 09:18 That it is not the end. 09:20 That eventually with time, God will provide 09:24 whatever I may need. 09:25 So I have hope that this is not the end of my problem, you know. 09:31 There is a hope. The biblical concept of hope. 09:33 Looking forward to something. 09:34 Is a very forward looking kind of a concept. Yeah. 09:37 It looks forward to something better that's coming. 09:41 And you can almost say, it implies that 09:43 things aren't quite as good as you want them now. 09:46 You have hope that things are going to go forward 09:49 and get better and you know go up from here. 09:53 So notice, there is a past been born again 09:57 and there is a hope that's in the future, all right. 10:00 So there is a past and there is a future 10:02 that he talks about. 10:03 He keeps on going and he says that 10:06 you have this hope and then verse 4 says, 10:09 "To an inheritance that is imperishable, 10:12 undefiled and unfading." 10:13 He used these three words, 10:15 in Greek, we call them alpha privatives. 10:17 They begin with an alpha and so that makes him negative, 10:22 it's not this, it's not this, it's not this. 10:25 And he says it's not perishable, 10:28 it's not defiled and it's not fading away. 10:34 It's a beautiful kind of picture 10:36 of--one scholar speaks of it in this way; 10:39 they say that it's a freedom from death, okay. 10:45 Because it's not gonna perish, the perishable is that 10:47 which decays and dies. 10:49 Freedom from death, freedom from impurity is undefiled. 10:56 And freedom from it's unfading. 11:02 You know, you start to look in-- 11:03 well, most of us don't see it in the mirror every day 11:05 but if you look at the picture of yourself-- 11:09 oh, you're still very young. 11:12 But if you look at the picture of yourself 11:13 when you're a young person 11:14 and then you look at this later picture, 11:17 you can really see the difference. 11:19 I remember, a student of mine 11:20 seeing a picture of my wedding, 11:22 you know, my wedding day. 11:24 They looked at that picture and they laughed. 11:29 Shepherd, you don't look like you used too, you know. 11:32 This is untouched by the ravages of time, this inheritance. 11:38 So there's three wonderful things 11:40 about this inheritance, you see. 11:42 It is, it will not decay, it's not gonna die, 11:46 it is not touched by impurity, 11:49 and it's untouched by the ravages of time. 11:53 Well, certainly is something that I can look forward to, 11:55 there is the hope in my life to say, 11:56 well, my life has a purpose. 11:59 God has a plan for me. 12:00 And I look forward to this incorruptible treasure 12:04 that never fades away, as you've mentioned. 12:06 Right. 12:07 It's an inheritance, you see, 12:08 so you've made a covenant with the God. 12:10 We've already been talking about that, 12:12 you are now His child. 12:14 You are inheriting, you are receiving 12:16 the blessings from God. 12:18 Is there anything in this life 12:20 that can destroy or touch that inheritance? 12:23 And the answer is no, no. 12:27 That's a wonderful security, you see, that these people need. 12:30 And the third thing he says, 12:32 it is kept for them in heaven for you. 12:36 That's at the end of verse 4. 12:38 And then in verse 5, he says, 12:40 "Who by God power are being guarded 12:44 through faith for a salvation 12:48 ready to be revealed at the last time." 12:51 So he's combined these great words about the future, 12:56 you see, he has an inheritance, 13:02 he has a-also the salvation 13:08 that is kept for them 13:10 into the future, and a living hope. 13:14 So a living hope, and salvation, and inheritance. 13:19 These three together, these three outcomes 13:22 are their's and they're all secured. 13:26 The question is, are they present now or they future? 13:31 That's a very good question and also, 13:33 perhaps you can help us understand, 13:35 you know, because we've studied 13:37 that these people are suffering and you help us to understand 13:42 I hope that how can these, 13:43 how can a person rejoice when they are suffering? 13:47 Yeah. 13:49 And perhaps you can answer those questions 13:51 after a brief break. 13:53 This is a very interesting study on the book. Yeah. 13:54 Now we're getting more involved 13:56 into the writings and the messages 13:57 that Peter has for these people. 13:59 Stay tuned, we'll be right back after these messages. |
Revised 2014-12-17