For reasons that escape me now, I Peter was the first book of the Bible I decided to preach through as a 22-year-old in my first pastorate. I had graduated with a college degree in history with zero preparation for leading a church or preparing and delivering sermons.
It would be interesting to know why any first-time pastor chooses a particular book as his first to preach through.
My guess is it had to do with all the fascinating concepts the Apostle Peter addresses in the opening chapter: our chosenness, our inheritance, our living hope, secure faith, continuing love. But, just as likely, it was the solidness of Peter’s tributes to the precious blood of Jesus and word of God in this first chapter.
The problem in preaching verse by verse over an extended period is that we tend to lose the big picture. A pastor friend once spent two years preaching through I John. I thought then and think now that must have been excruciating to his members. How they must have longed for a sermon from the life of Jesus or one of the famous Old Testament stories. Surely, the pastor filled out their diet with some variety now and then, but I seem to recall he didn’t.
Google a destination on the internet and you’ll find the map has a feature allowing you to zoom in and zoom out. You can locate the street address, but you can also back off and see where you’re going in relation to other cities and states.
It’s good to do that in Bible study sometime. Let’s do that just now with the first chapter of I Peter.
Peter to his weary audience: “You’re having a tough time of it just now. The world is coming at you from every side. You are being persecuted and harassed for no other reason than that you are following Jesus, the best thing that ever happened to you.”
“You’re wondering where is God, why this is happening, why you of all people, what good can possibly come from all this, and what God wants you to do now.”
Briefly, here is Peter’s response.