Scripture Memorization
1 Peter 3:17
OPENING PRAYER (5 to 10 minutes)
GROUP BUILDING (5 minutes)
Trust My Life With It (Object Talk) Click here
The Line (Activity) Click here
GETTING STARTED (10 minutes)
In the object talk, “Trust My Life With It,” we saw that we trust many things in life, but it is important to trust the right things, for our spiritual and physical lives depend on it.
General Discussion:
• What do you trust most? (Family, own strengths & talent, money, God.)
• Do you trust in God enough to be persecuted for Him, to lay down your life if need be?
In the activity, “The Line,” we threw in some trick questions. But some of you didn’t know the right answer. That’s true of what we’re going to talk about today. Sometimes there is a false teaching that invades our lives—much more damaging than the trick questions I just asked. Each false teaching that we believe brings us closer to a line that Satan wants us to cross.
General Discussion (Continued):
• How many of you know that you believe all the right things and nothing false? How do you know that?
• How can believing a lie affect your life? Have you ever had that happen?
Today we’re going to continue our study in 1 & 2 Peter. The topic of the day is believing in something that is worth dying for; a line we won’t cross. There are two themes that resonate throughout 1 & 2 Peter—the overcoming of persecution and overcoming false teachers. These aren’t just things that were common in Peter’s day—they are prevalent in our world too.
As we talk today, keep in mind where your line is: what is worth dying for?
DIGGING IN (30 minutes)
First, let’s look at overcoming persecution.
Read 1 Peter 3:13-22
Discussion Questions:
1. How does Peter instruct the reader in verses 13-14? (Not to be frightened.)
2. Why should people not fear? (Because they can’t be harmed if they are truly doing good.)
3. Instead of being afraid, what does Peter tell Christians to do in verses 15-16? (Set apart Christ as Lord and be prepared to answer anyone with the reason for your faith, keeping a clear conscience, etc.)
4. Why do you think Peter spends time next talking about Jesus’ suffering? (To show that doing good does not mean there will be no suffering.)
5. How can we be saved from our persecution in light of this passage? (Baptism saves us as a sign of a good conscience toward God—through the suffering of Jesus.)
It is pretty incredible to notice that the suffering of Jesus is what saves us from our own suffering. While persecution may hurt us, it cannot harm us if we are in Christ. Peter talks more in-depth about this later in this letter. Let’s check it out.
Read 1 Peter 4:12-19
Discussion Questions:
1. What does Peter say the Christians should not be in verse 12? (surprised.)
2. Instead of reacting this way, how should they react? (They should rejoice)
3. What do insults from others result in according to verse 14? (A blessing, because God’s Spirit rests on us.)
4. The reaction to suffering in the life of a Christian is what in verse 19? (To continue to do good.)
It sounds like when the Christians suffered, they should have realized that in the grand scheme, they couldn’t be harmed. Better put, the movement couldn’t be stopped. Instead, we are responsible, as believers, to simply continue doing good.
The persecution that is described here is likely the type that broke out under the Roman emperor Nero. From 64-68 AD, Nero oversaw an empire-wide persecution of Christians in which thousands (at the very least) of Christians were martyred, including Peter himself. Depending upon when 1 Peter was written, it could be that this persecution was not the empire-wide effort but localized, grassroots persecutions preceding the larger campaign. Nonetheless, these persecutions featured some grotesque practices.
Many Christians were fed to lions. They were taken from their homes and killed. Their holy books and places of worship were burned. One report records that Nero would kill Christians by impaling them on a stick and setting them on fire to provide lighting for dinner parties. They were used for sport in the coliseum, and otherwise abused in publicly graphic ways.
Discussion Questions:
• How does this change the sound of the verses we read before?
• What must it be like to live through such persecution? How do you think the people managed to do it?
Later, we’re going to look at how we face persecution today. For now, let’s look at a second struggle first-century churches faced and had to overcome—that of false teachers.
Read 2 Peter 2:1-22
This is a longer passage of Scripture than the first two we read, and it’s all about false teaching.
Discussion Questions:
1. In verses 1-3, what does Peter say false teachers will do? (Secretly introduce destructive heresies, be shameful, greedy.)
2. In that same passage, what fate awaits these heretics? (Destruction, judgment, and condemnation.)
3. In verses 4-8, Peter illustrates how the unrighteous have been judged over the years. Verses 9-10 state that judgment is especially true of whom? (Those who follow corrupt desires and despise authority.)
4. These people are brash, arrogant, and foolish. Verse 13 says what will happen to them? (They will be paid back with harm.)
5. Verse 17 likens false teachers to what? (Springs without water, mist driven by a storm.)
6. Verse 22 has strong language for false teachers. What are they like here? (A dog returning to its vomit, a pig that is washed and then goes back to the mud.)
7. Why do you think such harsh language is reserved for people who teach heresy, or things that are not orthodox doctrine?
False teaching was a prominent thing in the early church. Without the completed cannon of Scripture, without the readily accessible insights from church leaders, and without a cohesive set of beliefs—a lot of people were influenced by pride, tradition, and corruption. This resulted in false doctrine. Things that were untrue about Jesus, the resurrection, church leaders, God, the Holy Spirit, church practices, and a whole host of other issues. Peter steps up and says plainly here that these false doctrines and their teachers were doomed for judgment. There was no place in the Kingdom for them.
Now that we have the Bible, and we can commune with the Holy Spirit as Christians, it is a little easier to spot false teachers. And yet, so often, their teachings spread within Christianity just the same. In a moment, we’re going to look at modern-day false-teachers and how they impact the Church of Christ today.
MAKING IT REAL (10 minutes)
Tucked It’s one thing to recognize the presence of persecution and false teaching in the early church. It’s another thing to recognize it and draw a line in the sand today. What I want to do now is sort of explore how these issues are still effecting Christ’s Church in our time.
(Send students on a persecution scavenger hunt. All you need is an internet connection. Invite them to seek out examples of modern-day persecution among Christians. If you don’t have an internet connection in your meeting space, gather some materials ahead of time. There are books like Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and the Jesus Freaks books which recount hundreds of stories of martyrdom. Visit www.persecution.com, the website of Voice of the Martyrs, as well as www.persecution.org, the website of the International Christian Concern group. Dig up—or have students dig up—stories of modern-day persecution. Take 5-10 minutes looking over these. Then take 5-10 more minutes on the following questions.)
Discussion Questions:
• What were some of the stories you discovered? What broke your heart?
• Did you know this kind of stuff was still going on? How is it like the persecution early Christians faced?
• Now a tougher question—what do you think you would do if you faced that type of opposition in your faith? How do you think you can prepare for it?
Pray that you stand for Christ no matter the cost. It’s no different for us than it was for the first-century Christian. They can hurt us, but they can’t really do us harm. We have the power of the resurrection and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Even if someone kills us, they can’t kill the movement of Jesus.
It’s interesting to me that the Church has always grown the fastest when it was the most desperate. Even during the persecution under Nero, the Church was thriving. Perhaps we would serve the church well by praying FOR persecution. Tough thought, but there may be some truth to it.
(Repeat the above exercise by researching false teachers. Be VERY CAUTIOUS about websites and make sure that each is looked at with a great deal of caution. Two websites I viewed claimed to be exposing false teachers—but had the likes of Billy Graham and the “Early Church Fathers” listed as false teachers. It is often true that heretic hunters end up looking a lot like heretics themselves. Use this as an exercise in discovering what makes a false teacher false. Then ask the following questions.)
Discussion Questions:
• What did you find in your research?
• Was this search more difficult than the first? Why/why not?
• Why do you think it is so hard to know when someone is a false teacher or not?
I want to point you toward the Bible at this confusing juncture in our study.
Read 1 John 2:22-23 and 1 John 4:1-3
Obviously, there are other ways to have wrong theology, but we should be particularly suspicious of doctrines which minimize or completely ignore Jesus. If a teacher does not claim Jesus to be God, it is a false teaching in it’s most serious form. Therefore, Mormon theology, Jehovah’s Witness theology, Muslim theology, Hindu theology, Buddhist theology, Eastern Mysticism belief and New Age practices all fall under this category. While we can theologically disagree on lots of issues, the deity of Jesus is not one of them.
CLOSING PRAYER (2 minutes)
We have covered a lot of ground today. Maybe even more than you can process. I want to spend a couple of minutes in prayer, allowing you to ask God to help your understand what we’ve covered in greater depth. I encourage you to re-read these passages this week. After a few minutes of silence, I’ll close us in prayer.