 So let's begin reading here in 1 Peter chapter one at verse one. I'll give you verses one through four and We'll get into our study first Peter chapter one beginning at verse one reading to verse four the apostle Peter writes Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia Chino and Bethany Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the father in sanctification of the spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ Grace to you in peace be multiplied Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who according to his abundant mercy has Begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away Reserved in heaven for you The apostle Peter is writing a letter to saints to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who are undergoing intense persecution And as he's writing to them, he's encouraging them When he wrote this letter the year he wrote it is probably ad 64 ad 65 And so that by that time the gospel had had time to spread out from Jerusalem When you read your Bible and you open up the book of Acts and You read chapter 1 verse 8 in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 Jesus said you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem Judea Samaria and Unto the outermost parts of the earth and so the Lord Jesus Christ was saying that He was going to be sending the Holy Spirit who had baptized believers Empowering them and that they would be sent not just out of the city of Jerusalem, but through the region of Judea North into the area of Samaria and they would continue to take that message throughout the world and that's what has taken place And so by the time of the writing the gospel has been spreading You see these regions in verse 1 that are spoken of these pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia are actually regions that you find today in northern Turkey. And so the Gospel has spread from Jerusalem and it's gone up north into this particular region and as it's been spreading persecution has begun begun to be occurring and so The apostle Peter is writing them to encourage them to remain steadfast and faithful even though they're undergoing intense persecution now When you read a little bit about those times you discovered that the city of Rome had been burned And the Romans were devastated everything had been destroyed including their temples Shrines even their household idols The burning of Rome had made it obvious that their gods could not protect them as well as revealing to them that they were victims Of something they could not control Their anger was greater intensified when they began to believe that Nero had burned the city in order to satisfy his insane lust to build And so Nero circulated the rumor that it was the Christians who set the fire The Romans already opposed Christians because they associated with Jews and because they opposed Roman culture So as a result vicious persecution broke out against the believers and spread throughout the Empire And that's what the Apostle is speaking about right now that they are going through intense persecution That's why one of the key words that you'll find as we go through first Peter is the word suffering And that's why the epistle that we're gonna read this letter that we're about to read and begin to study Deals with the proper response of a Christian to persecution By the time we get to chapter 4 you're gonna see that that chapter provides teaching concerning how to handle persecution But the fact is persecution for being identified with Jesus Christ and living a righteous life is inevitable It's something that we need to remember. It's important to remember that believers are going to be persecuted Jesus promised that and The reason that believers will be persecuted is because they love the Lord So it's something that we're to be prepared for The Apostle Paul said those who shall live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution You know we have in our bookstore I'm certain we have a little promise box you can go and you can buy these Boxes or small containers that have Verses for the day and you can get them into called my promises from God or my promise box or whatever and you open it up and Daily you'll have a reading a scripture that you can take and you can meditate on and you can claim for yourself and say God Would you show me this today? So you pick it up and it says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and you say absolutely today We're gonna we're gonna do it Jesus you and I we're gonna have victory because I can do all things to Christ who strengthens me Or you pick up another scripture if any man being Christ is a new creation old things are passed away Behold all things are become new and you say that's right. I'm new in you today But what happens when you pick up 2nd Timothy 312 those who shall live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution Well, I got the wrong scripture today. This is for my wife. I Don't want to just ruin God's work in her life. I'll put it back in something else, you know You're the head and not the tail. Yes, Jesus. I appreciate that You know, that's a promise God gives us a promise the promise is if you're gonna live for Jesus Christ you will I will we will Suffer persecution that is a promise from God just as real as any other promise that we have of heaven blessings and everything else That's why in 1st Peter chapter 4 verse 12 That's why the Apostles says don't think it's strange concerning the fiery trial That is about to try you as if some strange thing has occurred to you Don't think it's strange is part of the Christian life Spending time reading the Gospels You discover that Jesus Christ prepared his disciples throughout his ministry to be ready for persecution Time I Don't have enough time to to read all the scriptures that Jesus gave as it relates to persecution But I can read John 15 verse 20 where Jesus said remember the word that I said unto you The servant is not greater than his Lord If they have persecuted me They will also persecute you if they persecuted me They will persecute you is a promise from God and it is something that many of us in this room understand Jesus taught that opposition to his message in essence. It's really opposition to him Comes in various ways comes in various ways Matthew chapter 5 verses 11 and 12 in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is speaking concerning persecution and all and he gives us some of the ways that persecution comes He says in Matthew 5 11 and 12 blessed are you when people revile you persecute you and Falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me Rejoice and be glad Because great is your reward in heaven For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you so Jesus said persecution is going to come in a Varietive ways it comes to reviling when he says they'll revile you the word revile means to to seriously mock you It speaks of a vid a vicious ridiculing It can be even such a strong word that it can speak of somebody personally Getting in the way we would say it is is literally getting in your face Their nose-to-nose he says there will be times when people because of your faith in me Will even confront you put their face against you They will oppose you in the most vicious way ridiculing you and so he says it comes through reviling He speaks about persecution the word persecute means to chase or pursue It speaks of driving away and can include actual physical actions, and then you have the false accusations They'll falsely say all kinds of evil against you. He says because of me false accusations Normally those things occur behind your back You can become an object of family or neighborhood or work-related gossip, and and it does hurt Your family can speak about you. Oh, here comes the Jesus freak. Oh, here comes a preacher You know and and it can it can hurt your feelings the neighbors can speak about you Co-workers can whisper behind your back, and it does hurt in Proverbs 25 18 It says a man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a club a Sword and a sharp arrow and indeed we believers here in the United States Do receive various forms of persecution there are those who have been physically beaten there are those who have been attacked verbally and I think the more general form of persecution that we may not even realize Jesus was to prepare us for is the false accusations the intellectuals who go on talk shows and begin to speak concerning Christians and faith and all and they may not even be speaking of you in particular. They're not mentioning your name They're not mentioning mine, but they're speaking in general of our family and our beliefs And they'll say things, you know and they're intellectuals They have that little arrogance that little haughtiness that that that intellectual snobbiness that they like to have where they kind of land It's almost like they're there have a French accent Those Christians, you know and and we're stupid, you know a bunch of stupid man They're really stupid. They actually believe that there's a God one and secondly that he created all things in six days How stupid is that and they'll say things like that and they may not say it quite like that But but they do you are foolish for believing that you know you go to a college class and you're in a science You're a science major and not every science major I have in here knows this is true And you'll have some professor who thinks that that it is this God given Obligation to convince you that God doesn't exist and evolution is a fact Even though what's referred to as a theory of evolution It's a theory. It's not a fact, but we call it a fact and people I mean you watch this discovery channel Let's say 32 billion years ago or you know 10 million years ago, and I always say the same thing I don't know why it's kind of a habit. It's a knee-jerk reaction. They'll say, you know 26 million years ago, and I'll turn to whoever's next to me and I'll say were they there Were they there they weren't there then how can you say it so quickly like you know it for sure Like you were an eyewitness to that. How do you know that 26 million? What if it was 25 point 3 million? How do you know that see but you get the Bill Mars and the others who come on and and say the kinds of things that they do About your faith. They mock you. They think you're stupid. They do the mockumentary's and all of that and we're we're aware of that That's what happens. That's a form of persecution It's it's a way to convince the common culture that faith in Christ is really ridiculous. It's really stupid It's useless. Why are you doing that? You have the TV comments that people will make and news programs and all of that where they want to use us as examples of violent people So they'll say all those fundamentalists who who blow up abortion clinics and murder doctors And you've heard that and I've heard that those fundamentalist Christians who blow up abortion clinics and murder doctors They never speak about what's taking place inside of that abortion clinic They never speak of what's taking place inside that mother's womb It's always those fundamentalist Christians That have and and and very often it's not even a fundamentalist Christian at all who's done that act of violence It's something that we as believers will say is wrong. You should not do that and we do You shouldn't blow up abortion clinics. You shouldn't murder doctors There are various ways to deal with these things, but it's not through violence Violence and violence working together don't work. Well, we believe that we know that but we're portrayed differently Aren't we in comedians? Comedians will make faith our faith, you know, just the buds of the jokes and we know that we're used to it Aren't we? I mean we're used to it because it happens all the time So you can turn on a talk show and some comedian will say something about Christians in our belief systems and they'll laugh and all of that and so there are various forms of persecution there is the Violin where someone can get in your face personally. There's a physical chasing and brutalizing. There's the intellectual snobbery The apostle Paul is in the city of Athens. It's recorded in Acts 17 And while he's there in the city of Athens the Bible says that his spirit was disturbed because the entire city was wholly given over to idolatry and As he's there he begins to reason he begins to share concerning Jesus Christ and faith and all and some of the Athenian Intellectuals as they're going by on their way to a place called Mars Hill Which was a location where the where the Philosophers of the day would gather together to say some new thing or hear some new thing and as They hear him they speak amongst themselves and they say what does this babbler have to say The word babbler there is really a disparaging word. It's something that speaks concerning fact that they think he gets his ideas from the gutter So they got this guy's a Picker of ideas from the trash What's he got to say let's hear him so they bring into a place called Mars Hill It would be like going to Harvard and going to one of the forums and speaking there So he brings them there to this location of intellect intellectuals and and the intelligentsia of Athens is there and they're listening to him and and that's when Paul begins to speak his famous Mars Hill presentation of Jesus Christ and they're listening to him as he speaks and as he begins He looks and he says I see you're very religious Because you have these pedestals these these These areas dedicated to the worship of many gods and in the event that you have failed to remember one You have one even that's dedicated to the unknown God this altar that you have for the unknown God Well, I want to tell you this unknown God's name and he begins to share with them and they're listening to him and And finally as he comes to Jesus and the resurrection as they hear him speaking concerning that They had thought Jesus was a God in Anastasia, which is the Greek word for resurrection was a goddess And so when they hear that he's actually speaking of a literal Resurrection that you can actually die and be brought back to life. They begin to laugh them to scorn because that's what the intellectuals do That's what they do He believes that you can die and come back to life Checking out of here. Come on. You're crazy. We'll hear you later. Bye That's what intellectuals do when you begin to reason of God you begin to reason of judgment You got you begin to reason concerning of the things of life Intellectuals have a tendency not all some of the greatest thinkers who ever existed were believers because they had to write basis for thought but modern atheists and those who had pervade those kinds of views Have a tendency of simply saying You guys don't have it all together You're just not Intellectual and so comedians will pick it up talk show hosts will pick it up and that's what takes place persecution it comes in various forms and So during this time persecution was already occurring and so the apostle is writing to encourage them and he wants to remind them of Something he wants to remind them how that Jesus had said great is our reward in heaven So this knowledge that great is our reward in heaven ought to be a motivation for us to desire him even more and the world even less and So that's what he's speaking here He's saying that you can have a relationship with God and heaven is your home and and you're just passing through and we'll see that in some detail in just a moment So notice how he begins here. That was your introduction. We ought to get into the study notice He begins at verse 1 by saying Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ So he identifies himself as he begins his letter as an apostle you have apostles you have disciples Every disciple is simply that every believer is a disciple But there are only 12 apostles an apostle is one who's been delegated with authority and sent out and Jesus hand-picked 12 of them originally the apostle Peter was one of the 12 that was picked out hand-picked by Jesus Christ as his apostle He was a man with tremendous faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and was held in great prominence in the church as a matter of fact When you read any of the lists of the 12 apostles the apostle Peter is always the first name on the list It's interesting how his name is always the first on the list and Judas is always the last on the list And so he was one of great prominence and we know the apostle Peter by reading scripture We know that he was a married man That at one time his occupation was that he was a fisherman. We know that his father's name was Jonah Then he had a brother named Andrew We know that the two of them were in partnership with the man by the name of James and his brother John who were sons of Zebedee Who later became apostles also? We know that he was not an educated man, but he did have a deep faith in Jesus Christ And we know that he was brought to Jesus by his brother Andrew Jesus actually when he saw Peter said to him you are Simon son of Jonah you will be called Cephas Which when translated is a stone a Short time later after being called Or actually after being named Peter was washing his nets and Jesus called him to full-time service and The apostle Peter left everything behind to follow Jesus He became one of Jesus's inner circle believers And he witnessed Jesus's raising of Jeres's daughter from the dead the Transfiguration and was in the garden of Gethsemane with Jesus when Jesus prayed for strength to lay down his life on the cross It was the apostle Peter who confessed Jesus at Caesarea, Philippi And it was Peter who stated Jesus had words of eternal life in Capernaum The apostle Peter walked on water Refused to allow Jesus to wash his feet and the apostle Peter cut off Malchus's ear in the garden It was Peter who denied Jesus three times only to later see Jesus and weep bitterly And it was Peter who was asked by Jesus three times if you loved him on Easter Peter and John ran to an empty tomb and On the day of Pentecost Peter exercised the keys to the kingdom by preaching a message that resulted in the conversion of 3000 and so he's the one who is writing this letter Peter and he refers to himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ He's writing to the pilgrims of the dispersion the word dispersion there is diaspora But he's writing to what are called the pilgrims in the diaspora now This originally would speak of Jews who lived outside of Israel During the time of writing there were around a million living in Israel, but four million were scattered abroad So Peter is using a term usually reserved for Jews and he's transferring that term to the church He's speaking of them as being pilgrims a Pilgrim is one who sojourns in a strange place or a foreigner It's a temporary resident in the New Testament It's used in reference to heaven as the native country and one who sojourns on earth And so what he's speaking about is community He's speaking of communities of people living outside our native land, which is heaven and we're doing so temporarily The point is that when you're a pilgrim You know that the earth is not your home that you're just passing through and you're going somewhere better See the bottom line is as we as believers today are so hooked on something We don't realize it and that is we're so our feet are so planned out on the earth that we don't realize that heaven is our home And I think part of the reason why we don't really value heaven as much as we ought to is simply because Many of us are victims to today's culture and cultural beliefs related to how you get there When I first got saved back in 1970 and And I heard a message that said if I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, I shall be saved and Then I started reading the Bible and I started receiving teaching and I started seeing that Because I'm born again. I have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and now I'm just passing through I'm a pilgrim and Heaven is my final destination. I have to tell you I was excited about that and I began to share with people And I would say this I literally would say to my friends. I'm going to heaven. I was excited about it I'm going to heaven and my friends would say to me. No, you're not You're not good enough There was that attitude. You're not good enough Because even unbelievers knew The people who go to heaven have a certain quality of life They are to be different than the rest of the people in the world And they only knew me as the alcoholic and the druggy that I used to be that's how they knew me So now I'm speaking to them and I'm saying to them I'm going to heaven and the immediate response more than once was no, you're not. How can you you're not good enough and I would say to them. I know I'm not good enough I've never been in and never will but but I believe in one who is and I had discovered and I'd been taught the reason I'm going to heaven is because Jesus Christ has made a way for me and I would share with them But they would argue and they'd say no, you're not you're not good enough today. It's different It's entirely different this generation has rise up today the people that are believing in heaven and those that do which a good majority of Americans still do Believe that everybody goes to heaven Some guys some rockstar will say some celebrity of some sort Was drinking drank too much or doing some drugs and was driving and got killed in a car crash Then they have the funeral and then somebody gets up and stands up in a pulpit and behind the pulpit and they say Oh, yeah, we know that Joey or whomever is in heaven right now, man smoking a doobie We used to call them doobies smoking a joint and yeah, he's just looking down saying party on and people are saying yeah, because the only only Thing that is necessary for somebody to go to heaven in the minds of many today is you just die Everybody goes to heaven you go to heaven your rock stars the celebrities your parakeet your dog Your cat they all go Everybody goes to heaven and there's no there's no way that you that you actually Rationalize as to how that actually occurs. It's just an automatic Everybody goes to heaven But that's not what the Bible teaches and that's what the apostle Peter is speaking about We who have been born again We who have been begotten to a living hope be gotten again to a living hope born again to a living hope We are the ones who have the hope of heaven, but what we are today are pilgrims Sojourners just passing through So when we start gathering as many things as we can Now because we want to call those blessings of God Has a tendency of weighing us down Paul when he was writing the Philippians 3 20 said our citizenship is in heaven and We eagerly await a savior from there the Lord Jesus Christ In John chapter 14 verses 1 through 3 Jesus had let not your heart be troubled you believe in God Believe also in me in my father's house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I Go to prepare a place for you And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also heaven I Go to prepare a place for you But I will come again and receive you unto myself Our citizenship is in heaven and we await our savior to come and rescue us to take us now We're not escapists It's not as if we're saying oh, I've got to get out of here, and I've got to get out of here now We have been given marching orders by Jesus in Luke 19 13 where he said occupy until I come do business until I come We're to be busy about the master's business living for Jesus sharing his message waiting for him to come and having that hope as we as we wait for him Because one of these days and it's not that long we will be with him seeing him face to face and therefore we We prepare ourselves Somebody once said you Christians you Christians You're so heavenly minded. You're no earthly good The fact is I've met too many Christians who are so earthly minded. They're not heavenly good Because we get loaded down with things we get caught up with the cares and concerns of this age and We fail to realize that this world is not our home We begin to expect entitlements from God that he's supposed to do certain things for us because after all we believe in him and Then we get disappointed because things don't work out the way that we had planned No, we occupy until he comes and this church that these people that Peter's writing to are going through persecution And he's saying you're going through hard times. Don't think that it's something strange happening to you. It's not you were prepared for this Notice how he goes on in verse 2 and he says that they're elect according to the foreknowledge of God the father in sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ He's saying you've been chosen by God You are his own special people you belong to him and That ought to bring them a special comfort as they're undergoing this persecution He speaks of sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ So the Holy Spirit applies Jesus's redemption to the believer purifying him and setting him apart to serve God The Holy Spirit coming within you empowers you and gives you the ability through the gifts and the leading To do those things that are pleasing to God. You've been purified by the blood of Jesus Christ He has washed you and made you completely new and he doesn't simply clean up an old life He gives a completely new one to the believer That's why Paul said if any man be in crisis and you creation old things are passed away Behold all things become new You see when he says all things pass away and then uses the word behold. That's a word of exclamation. He's saying check this out Look at this isn't this amazing all things have become you behold look at it closely. See what God has done You're not refurbished. You're brand new You go to a car lot to buy a car and they have a 2012 And you're looking at it and you're thinking it's a brand new car But they say no no this one here fell off the bridge and fell into the water, but we refurbished it. I Don't think I want a refurbished car. I Want a brand new one if I'm going to be buying a 2012 it had better be new It better be low mileage. It's not one of your your loners And it's certainly not the one that you use to demonstrate how the car drives to those who are potential buyers who end up buying A different one and now it's got 16,000 miles on it, but you're calling it new. I want a new car Well, you want to know something we're not refurbished We're new we're brand new because the Lord Jesus Christ has washed us with his blood and when he has cleansed us He's made us brand new he has justified us as if we had never sinned and he regards us in that fashion And he says your sins I have dropped into the middle of the sea and I will not go fishing I put a no fishing sign over that those sins are washed away completely clean You are brand new and that's why Paul would say behold Check it out what God has done. So somebody says, oh you used to do alcohol. Yeah, you used to do drugs. Yeah So then you're recovering. No, I'm not recovering. I'm recovered not only am I recovered, but I am covered I am not recovering because I have a new life. I'm brand new that David Rosales was buried He's in the grave Paul says a Roman six. We are buried in Christ. I died in him I've been buried in him, but I have been made alive by him. I've been raised from the dead in Jesus Christ So no, I'm not a recovering drug addict. I'm a new creation in Jesus Christ All things are passed away behold all things are become new That's how it works. And that's what Christianity is all about It's a washing of regeneration the renewing of the holy spirit And that's what he's speaking about born again Nicodemus comes and speaks to Jesus master We know that thou art a teacher come from God No man could do the works that thou do us unless God be with him and Jesus's response there in John 3 Unless a man is born again and cannot see he cannot enter into the kingdom of God Born again Brand new regenerated with a living hope with a living hope It says so in verse 3 who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope This living hope is one in Jesus who is alive He was buried but the third day he rose again from the dead and he is a living hope not only is he hope, but he is our hope And paul was right into timothy and first timothy one verse one He said paul an apostle of jesus christ by the commandment of god our savior and the lord jesus christ our hope So he is our hope And his resurrection provides hope for us even as it says in romans 8 verse 11 If the spirit of him who raised up jesus from the dead dwells in you He who raised up christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwells in you Jesus was raised from the dead and so will you be you have a living hope because you're born again And not only that that we have been res we have been born again begotten again to a living hope through the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead to An inheritance Incorruptible undefiled that does not fade away Reserved in heaven for you In the old testament god chose a man by the name of abram who became abraham And he gave him an inheritance and the inheritance he gave to him was an inheritance of land we call it the promised land In genesis 12 1 and 2 the lord said to abram leave your country your people your father's household And go to the land i will show you i will make you into a great nation And i will bless you i will make your name great and you will be a blessing Well god has given the church an inheritance and the inheritance we have is Fellowship in heaven with jesus christ In matthew 25 34 we read the king will say to those on his right Come you who are blessed by my father Take your inheritance the kingdom prepared for you Since the creation of the world heaven Heaven for the christian is a sure thing And it is as real As the land abraham was to inherit And we have this inheritance that is incorruptible undefiled Does not fade away that is reserved in heaven For us incorruptible Unlike the things of this age it doesn't rot nor does it decay because it is permanent Undefiled and not fading away it is pure it is spotless It doesn't wither like a flower And reserved it's guarded it's protected it's been put aside And the lord is the one who reserves and protects it The lord is the one who is guarding So i have a hope that no one can take away It's undefiled It's incorruptible It's waiting for me And one of these days and it won't be long We will see him face to face We think in terms of oh, it seems like it's going to be so long I was talking to my son david the other day My granddaughter bella his daughter Was standing in front of me. She's a little thing. She's going to be three years old in august And i was watching a professional baseball team called the dodgers the other day She's a dodger fan So she sees the boys in blue She recognizes vin scully's voice now And she starts yelling go Dodgers Go Dodgers Then she'll go down down down and She's just this is a trip. It's a lot of fun And my my son david's watching her With that look that dad's get Looking at his little baby there as she's cheering them on and this and that I think it's so sweet how cute But I say to him this I say david let me tell you something I said capture this in your memory Because the days go by so quickly She's going to grow up someday And it is my prayer. She'll do to you what you have done to me. No, I didn't say that I said she's going to grow up one day and This moment that you're enjoying watching her as his little baby Will be gone in an instant every person like myself who has raised children and now senior grandchildren, you know, it's true You know, it's true As a grandfather, I'll look at her and I'll see her father in her And and sometimes I get sentimental nostalgic and I'll say You used to do the same thing You were the same way Yeah, I see I see you in her david well You close your eyes and you open them And time has flown by It's gone You're gonna close your eyes here To open them up there And the time on earth is gone. Peter is saying You're just passing through You live 40 years. You live 60 years. You live 80 years. It is still just a blip on the map Put your attention on what matters That new today in today's terms that new car is nice You can afford it But is it putting you in a position that you can't do other things that would benefit your family if that's the case? Why are you getting it? That home, yes, it's bigger and it's nicer and this and that But if it's going to put you in the position of having to work longer hours and and not see your wife not see your kids Why are you getting it? Those things that you want so much you want to put your money into Instead of investing them in your family and your children into the kingdom of god or whatever Why are you doing you've got to think you have one life and soon it will be passed And the only things that last are going to be the things that you did for jesus christ So what are you doing? Are you a pilgrim? Are you passing through or have you grabbed hold of things and are you so laden by them that you can't even think of heaven anymore? And especially in their case where they're saying persecution has arrived He's saying you are a pilgrim you are passing through Jesus has reserved a place for you Hold fast. You will see him I promise you the ones who received this letter have been seeing the face of jesus for 2000 years And they don't regret doing what the apostle peter said to do They don't regret it today because they see jesus face to face and that's what peter was telling them Rome is after you persecution is coming You're living and enduring some troubling times, but you are just passing through you are a pilgrim There is a reward awaiting you in heaven. You shall see jesus face to face Hold on Hold on And watch what god will do in your life Good advice and instruction then great advice and instruction now