Rock Solid Hope - A Study of 1 Peter Lesson 3 - Hope as God’s People 1 Peter 1:22-25 Since you have purified your souls by obeying the truth, resulting in sincere brotherly love, love one another constantly from a pure heart. For you have been born again, not from perishable seed but from imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For: “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like a flower of the field. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you. 1. Agree or Disagree: Your soul gets purified by you obeying the truth. 2. What gets in the way of you loving others constantly from a pure heart? (and what can get you there more consistently? 3. Agree or Disagree: You have been born again. 4. Agree or Disagree: The word of God is powerful enough to change a person’s entire life in an instant. 1 Peter 2:1-2 Therefore rid yourselves of all evil, all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all slander. Like newborn babies, crave the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow up with the result being salvation. Certainly you have tasted that the Lord is good! 5. If a person is born again of the powerful word of God, why do they need to rid themselves of evil? 6. Agree or Disagree: There are times when you crave the word like a newborn craves milk.
7. What evidence is there that you’ve already done some “growing up” into salvation? What evidence is there that you’ve got more “growing up” to do? 8. Any times that you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good? 1 Peter 2:4-10 As you come to him, the Living Stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious, you also, like living stones, are being built as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, in order to bring spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it says in Scripture: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who believes in him will certainly not be put to shame.” Therefore, for you who believe, this is an honor. But for those who do not believe: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and, a stone over which they stumble and a rock over which they fall.” Because they continue to disobey the word, they stumble over it. And that is the consequence appointed for them. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, the people who are God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. At one time you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. At one time you were not shown mercy, but now you have been shown mercy. 9. Few things hurt more than rejection. How can the hurt of rejection be healed? 10. Agree or Disagree: The rejection of people shouldn’t matter because of the acceptance you have from God. 11. If you could choose your own home, with no cost restrictions, what are some features you’d choose? 12. God can choose any “home” he wants. What does Peter say he has chosen as the place he has chosen to dwell?
13. What kinds of things that you do would you say are acceptable and pleasing to God? 14. What comes first: disobeying the word; or stumbling over it? 15. What makes Jesus unique as a cornerstone for life? What are some other cornerstones besides him? 16. If all believers are part of the royal priesthood; why have Pastors in most visible churches?