Peter the Man (4)

1 Pe. 1:1-2 1 Peter

In 'Peter the Man (4),' Pastor Albert N. Martin continues his series on Peter's life, focusing on the 'prelude to Pentecost' events that prepared Peter to write 1 Peter. He expounds Acts 1 and Luke 24, detailing Christ's post-resurrection appearances and instruction, and the explicit command and promise of the Holy Spirit. Martin argues these events validated Peter's apostleship, confirmed the reality of Christ's resurrection for our salvation, and equipped Peter with a 'calm, gracious dogmatism' to write his epistle, emphasizing that the Spirit's work makes Christ equally precious to all believers, regardless of having seen Him physically. The sermon concludes with a direct evangelistic appeal to unbelievers based on Christ's resurrection and future judgment.

3 illustrations in this sermon

The Post-Resurrection Appearances of the Lord Jesus (Acts 1:1-3, Luke 24:36-43)

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Seances and Apparitions

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds on Christ's post-resurrection appearances to the apostles, particularly the account in Luke 24, where Jesus presented 'many proofs' of His physical resurrection…

The disciples' fear of seeing a spirit is compared to seeing apparitions in seances, which lack physical substance, to emphasize that Jesus' resurrected body was corporeal and touchable.

They were seeing the kinds of things that are reported in seances. When people supposedly see an apparition of some departed loved one. They see a face and they see a face. They see a form.

12:25 - 12:40 Read in full sermon

Relevance of Post-Resurrection Instruction: Peter's Understanding of the Kingdom and Old Testament

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Lovesick Man's Infatuation

Driving home: He takes terminology, right out of the Old Testament, when God speaks to his Old Testament people, Israel, and he says, you are now the Israel of God. That didn't just happen, folks. It didn't happen overnight.

Peter's frequent use of Old Testament allusions is contrasted with a 'lovesick man' who constantly finds ways to talk about his beloved, to show that Peter's references are not sentimental but rooted in Christ's teaching.

Have you ever been around someone like that? You can't talk about a thing but what he finds a bridge to the one that's made his heart go flip-flop and flutter-flutter. You ever been around someone like that? It's a kind of pleasing discussion.

45:25 - 45:38 Read in full sermon

Relevance of the Holy Spirit's Promise: Equality of Experience and Peter's Dogmatism

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Name-Dropping with Important People

The point: Do not wish you had seen Jesus physically, as the Holy Spirit's work unites us to Christ and makes Him equally precious through apostolic documents, making your experience no less valuable.

The tendency of people to 'name-drop' after spending time with an important person (like a president) is used to highlight why liberal commentators find Peter's lack of personal anecdotes about Jesus in 1 Peter a 'stumbling block,' and to explain that Peter understood the Spirit's work made physical presence less critical.

He said, you see, one of the stumbling blocks for skeptical scholars when they read the book of 1 Peter and study it and try to say, Peter never could have written it. You know what the stumbling blocks, one of the stumbling blocks is? Is he makes so little references of personal interaction with Jesus in the days of his flesh. And they say, surely if he had been the Peter of the gospels, he would have all the time been talking about when I was with Jesus.

58:00 - 58:25 Read in full sermon

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