Expositions from 1 & 2 Peter
Peter, the rough, feisty, outspoken fisherman, became transformed into Peter, the preacher of Gospel of Jesus Christ, willing to suffer. In the first four books of the New Testament, we meet the outspoken Peter who is not ready to suffer but rather ready to fight. Then we find a changed man in the book of Acts as Peter leads the church and preaches about Jesus to both Jews and Gentiles. What happened? How did Peter become a different man?
I think Acts 4:13 (NKJV) sums it up well: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.” Later in Peter’s life, he writes to his fellow believers, and we have at least two of those letters recorded in the books of First and Second Peter. I think what we find in these two books is Peter’s conclusions to life.
The featured book for today is “Sojourners In Faith” by Dr. J. Otis Yoder. This book is made up of expositions of the two letters from the Apostle Peter to the scattered exiles of [Jewish] Christians. I find these two books of the New Testament to be an excellent insight into the thought and practice of the early church. Peter spends quite a bit of writing in the first letter discussing suffering and submission. Neither one are my favorite subject but are very needful lessons in my life.
In the next week, we will be studying 1 Peter in our church’s Sunday School class. I found several of the chapters to be a helpful commentary on 1 Peter chapters 2 and 3. Dr. Yoder has a simple, straight-forward style in explaining the matter of how Jesus was worthy and the perfect lamb to take away our sins.
My encouragement to you is to “gird up the loins of your mind” and study the letters from the Apostle Peter. You can request Dr. Yoder’s 140-page book by calling our office at 1-866-960-0292 or sending us an email.
–Tony High