Welcome to Studies with Stearman.

Join us as we look deeper into the Bible.

Strengthen your faith with us, even as we see the day approaching.

And now, here's Gary.

I'm always surprised when I read the writings of Peter, and I think back to the fact that

he's a fisherman who grew up in Copernium, and yet he writes, he covers the redemption

of Christ back before the earliest creation. His coverage is wide angle. It continues on

into the vastness of the future. And right in the middle of that,

he places the redeemed. And in First Peter last week, we were looking at a couple of things.

One, I want you to note again and continually the first sentence of First Peter. And that is his salutation, where he says,

Peter and Apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia,

Capadocia, Asia, Bethenia. And what he's writing to here, or who he's writing to,

would be the sojourners of the diaspora. In fact, that very Greek word is used,

translated into King James English as strangers scattered. It is diaspora. Who's he writing to here?

The diaspora. He's writing primarily to Hebrew Christians. And this becomes very clear as we continue through this

epistle. He's writing, I believe, from Babylon. There was, after the return from Babylon,

a sizable Jewish community that remained there. And so Peter ministers to the Jewish community

of Babylon. Now, it's well known historically that Peter

died in Rome, but he didn't go back to Rome until very, very late in his life. He's writing

from Babylon. He's writing from the far eastern edge of the movement to bring Christ to the Gentiles. Last week we left off in the section 1st Peter

1, verse 10 through 12, where Peter again, I think, is placing us in the context of the larger scale of redemption, where he says in verse 10,

of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you.

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