All right now, if we're honest, reading the Bible consistently can be a challenge, but it's never too late to start and we're in this together.

This is the Join the Journey podcast.

Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Join the Journey podcast.

I'm Christy Shermack, and today I'm in the podcast studio with me.

It's just me.

Sorry to disappoint you, but I can confirm we are still in for a treat today because we're going to be spending some time discussing the book of First Peter, and then tomorrow I'll be back to walk us through Second Peter as well. Now, other than the Sermon on the Mount, I honestly cannot think of a better section of scripture to encourage, admonish, and strengthen the church in America in 2025 than these two books. And I don't know about you, but I've seen a lot of confusion and discussion on what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus in the times that we live in. And Peter does not pull any punches as he talks about this. He cuts to the core of it, and the words on these pages mean what they say. Some of it can be very refining, and I know it was for me as I read through these and thought about our time together today and tomorrow. So I would love to just start with a little bit of context of these books that we're looking at. As we know from our time on the journey, Peter was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, and specifically, one of the three that were closest to Jesus, getting to experience miracles and things like the transfiguration that not all disciples were able to witness.

He was originally Simon, but Jesus changed his name to Peter, meaning rock,

when Peter came to his confession that Jesus was the Christ.

As the early church grew, Peter took a key leadership role and was referred to as an apostle.

So in other words, this is a guy we can learn some

things from. Now, why did Peter write these two letters, these two epistles? He actually tells us himself.

In 2nd Peter chapter 3, he says he wrote both letters to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.

I want you to recall the word spoken in your past by the holy prophets and the command given to you

by our Lord and Savior through the apostles. And then he goes on into some warnings that we'll talk about more tomorrow. But overall, as we read these two letters, Peter wanted us to remember what's important. So in the beginning of First Peter, we find out that Peter is writing to followers of Jesus who have been scattered across Europe and Asia. Most scholars think the dating on this book was around 80-64, which

had been shortly before Peter's death. Most likely he's writing from Rome, which would have been a

time of great persecution for the early church. Nero was an emperor at that time, and he was known

to be especially cruel to Christians. He hung them from stakes upside down, which was the fate

that Peter himself was soon to face. He burned people to function

as torchposts for the city. He hosted gladiator games where Christians and other lower-ranking

members of society were killed for sport. All in all, this was a hard time to follow Jesus and to be a

Christian. So in the context of this book, Peter, who walked closely with Jesus, is writing to followers

of Jesus who have a lot of reasons

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