Text: 1 Peter 3:1-7 | Listen to Message This passage on marriage has prompted more eye rolls, groans, and snide remarks than perhaps any other in Scripture. “What right does a man have to tell a bunch of women to submit to their husbands?” “How unbelievably close minded, primitive, sexist, chauvinistic, and patriarchal!” “See, this is one of the big problems with Christianity: it’s so condescending to women.” But are those accusations and complaints even accurate? The 21st Century reader sees words like submit, obey, and weaker, interprets them through a postmodern lens, and automatically assumes the Bible is crude and...

Text: 1 Peter 2:18-25 | Listen to Message Most of you will spend more hours at work over the course of your life than you will spend doing anything else, including sleeping. Work is the source of some of our greatest joys as well as some of our greatest frustrations and sorrows. We often give too much of ourselves to it – and expect too much from it in return. Work is especially challenging for those of you who have an unreasonable boss or a toxic work culture. The nepotism, dishonesty, and corruption wear on you. You’re passed over for opportunities...

Text: 1 Peter 2:13-17 | Listen to Message Our nation’s political and civic life is riddled with acrimony. We don’t just disagree anymore; we are rudely disrespectful, bitter, and malicious toward one another. We tend to ignore and justify the flaws of our own party/politicians/tribe while exaggerating the flaws of the other. We are deeply divided and arrogant. Given how contentious this situation has become, how should Christians view politics and civic life? Should we compete for positions of power or should we surrender power? Should we infiltrate politics by running for office or is politics no place for Christians? Should...

Text: 1 Peter 2:11-12 | Listen to Message The Christian life is often characterized as a life of faith, a life of love, a life of holiness, or a life of obedience, but when’s the last time you heard someone describe the Christian life as a life of beauty? Are Christians – especially morally conservative Christians – more concerned with being “right” than with living attractive, winsome, beautiful lives? And, if so, at what cost? Let me come at this from another angle. What words do non-Christians use to describe Christians these days? If we honest, we’re accustomed to hearing words...

Text: 1 Peter 2:4-10 | Listen to Message What’s the unrelenting story you tell yourself about yourself? What’s the narrative that plays over and over again in your mind? Maybe it’s something negative and self-deprecating, like: “I’m a dirty, rotten sinner.” “I’m a failure, a loser, a nobody.” “I’m unlovable, worthless pond scum.” “I’m a victim.”   Or maybe it’s something positive and self-affirming, like: “I’m awesome.” “I’m successful, I’m really good at what I do.” “I’m important, I’m a somebody.” “I can be whoever I want to be.”   We all find our identity, our sense of significance, in something...

Text: 1 Peter 1:13-2:3 | Listen to Message If salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, then why does holiness matter? If we’re saved not by what we achieve, but by what we receive, then do Christians really have to obey all the rules in the New Testament – or can we just believe in Jesus? If it’s not about our performance for Christ, but his performance for us, then why do we still have to . . . perform? The Apostle Peter agrees with Paul that the grace of God has a purpose, a goal, a telos. The Gospel...

Text: Matthew 21:1-17 | Listen to Message Can we start with the simple acknowledgement that our world – from the most traditional to the most progressive culture – is built on an obsession with self? We constantly and instinctively put our own opinions and interests above the needs of others. We want what we want, and we’re mad when we don’t get our way. Our pride makes us miserable, frustrated, and envious. It produces conflict, division, and even war. But we’re not about to stop being proud anytime soon, are we? That’s the funny thing about pride: we can always convince...

Text: 1 Peter 1:10-12 | Listen to Message “All religions are just different paths to the same God.” “Religion is just a fairy tale, and only fools believe in fairy tales.” “There’s nothing unique about Christianity. It’s just another copycat religion.” “With so many religions in the world, who’s to say theirs is the right one? Just live and let live.” If you interact with our relativistic, pluralistic culture around the subject of religion, it won’t be long before you hear a bunch of statements like these. All religions get thrown in a blender and treated as if they all claim...

Text: 1 Peter 1:3-9 | Listen to Message Christians don’t live by wishful thinking or a vaguely positive feeling. We don’t make a blind leap of faith and then take a “wait and see” approach. We have a new and living hope – because our hope is nothing less than our Risen Savior, Jesus Christ. Thus, Christian hope is an exclamation point, not a question mark. If we functionally believed this good news, it would completely transform our perspective on trials (which the Bible sometimes refers to as tests). And yet trials/tests pose one of the biggest existential threats to our...

Text: 1 Peter 1:1-2 | Listen to Message How are Christians to live in a culture that’s increasingly hostile to our faith and values? How are we to act when our impulse is often to compromise or sell out our future for some immediate benefit? How do we react to the incessant ridicule of and discrimination against our beliefs? These are some of the timely, relevant questions addressed by the apostle Peter’s first letter. To help them navigate the challenges of living as Christians in the idolatrous empire of Ancient Rome, Peter told believers of the Diaspora to see themselves as...