5FB 1 Peter 1:1

1. Peter, is the proto apostle. The apostle is the bedrock of the church movement, well, first, the Bride of Christ, and then the movement (Mt 16:18, “upon this rock I will build My church”); the movement as a people and as a direction.

2. Apostles acknowledge the existence of exiles – the exiles in this passage are Christians from Jerusalem and are now scattered into foreign areas. In Jeremiah 29 fashion, the apostle mobilizes these exiles to create new missional communities of Christ in their local contexts.

3. These exiles are God’s chosen. They are not exiled on accident. They are strategically placed within foreign (new) cultures, traditions and languages. This verse is pregnant with Peter reminding the church (especially those with apostolic gifts) that we are the salt of scattered. Scattered salt.

Message Titles: “Hitting Bedrock” “The Gift of Exile” “If You Won’t Go, I’ll Send You.”

1. The prophet recalls that Christians are not simply selected, but Elected. We have been chosen to do something: we are not a people who SIT, we are a people who are SENT.

2. Prophets have a “scattered” DNA. They understand loss of a previous way of life, dignity and integrity. They also understand what it means to have the fullness of their prophetic identity located in Jesus in the same way that the Father dwells in all his fullness in the Son.

3. Peter reminds the prophet that they inhabit the Word (“logos”) of the letter to the Galatians – namely that they are positioned in communities to tell them (Gal 1:6) not to abandon the faith (Gal 1:11) and that the gospel we center our new life on is not of human origin.

Message Titles: “Shoes for Pews” “Where The Root Grows” “The Word of the Letter”

1. The evangelist protects and practices the tradition that has been handed down from Peter. Peter’s first hand gospel infiltrates the evangelist’s community and becomes the foundation of building new stories with new believers.

2. The evangelist, working with the apostle, seeks out the scattered exiles and gets to know who they know. They learn the stories of the new community and weave the gospel into them (Acts 17:11-12).

3. The evangelist strengthens the Church by knowing her stories and retelling them. They present story as a mirror of the church itself and a window through which the Bride of Christ can see the groom at work in the world.

Message Titles: “The Power of Someone Else’s Story” “It’s Who You Know” “The Window In The Mirror”

1. The pastor lives with their people in between Peter’s betrayals and his restorations. they minister in the tension between sin and forgiveness, light and darkness, sorrow and joy.

2. Pastors minister to the Christians who fear being scattered. They provide strength to those whose hearts have grown weary of doing the life of Christ. Pastors help lead the weak hearted to the strength they have in the knowledge that they “can do all things through Christ who strengthens” them (Phil 4:13).

3. The Five countries mentioned in this passage can be overwhelming just reading them. Like, who knows what they are. Peter’s list makes the reader take into consideration that there are other places that need the gospel. The Pastor enables their flock to listen for that still small voice that calls them to go to or pray for one of them.

Message Titles: “The Gap” “Whatever I Fear The Most” “Who Can It Be Now?”

1. The teacher is responsible to shine a light on Peter, warts and all: his passion, impertenance, his work, his call, his loyalty and his inabilities, his restoration and his mission.

2. The flock needs to understand the need for pressure in the Christian community. Without Pressure and discomfort, the church will not produce disciples or send them out in mission.

3. The five nations in this prelude have distinctions, flavors. The teacher needs to understand what those are and helps the flock see a) what it could have been like for the early Christians to minister in those contexts and, b) how those contexts are similar to where we are called today.