Exiles Enroute - Small Groups - Week 1

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Exiles Enroute will take us on a journey through the book of 1 Peter in the Bible showing that Jesus Lights the Way! 

During the Exiles Enroute series our small groups will also be studying 1 Peter. Here are the notes for week 1.

Small Group Questions

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Go over your Small Group Agreement together and then, just for fun, ask your group, If you had to live in any other time period in the past, what period would you choose? Why?

  1. Pray that God will bless your time in the Bible, helping you to be good exegetes who read out of the text its original meaning, not eisegetes who read into it what they want it to mean. Have volunteers read 1 Peter 1:1-2 from various Bible translations.
  2. Peter writes this letter to believers scattered throughout modern day Turkey to remind them that they (we) belong to a loving and sovereign God. In what ways were they exiles? In what ways are we like Peter‘s original readers?
  3. Where have you perhaps become too at home in this world? How do those things compete with the purpose of our election? How does our identity as ‘elect exiles’ help us with the pressures and trials of living in a hostile world?
  4. What are the dangers of only focusing on the love of God and avoiding the atoning sacrifice of Jesus for our sin? How is it that obedience to Jesus and the sprinkling of his blood go together?
  5. Sanctification means to be set apart (position) as holy, and to daily grow in holiness (progression) becoming like Jesus. According to verse 2, how do the Persons of the Trinity participate together in this?
  6. What does it mean to be the elect? Share how this doctrine of election might bring you comfort or discomfort? How does this doctrine affect the proud, and the despairing? Why is it important to keep both God’s sovereignty and our human responsibility in view when we contemplate election?
  7. In what way in Peter’s opening address (1:1-2) do you feel he was speaking to you? What do you need to change about your life (or perspective) in response? Close in prayer for each other.