A Living Hope: 1 Peter 1:1-12

The sermon text this morning comes from the Epistle of 1 Peter chapter 1.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Be reading verses 1 through 12.

Written by Peter the Apostle, close friend of Jesus, the one who writes to the exiles scattered abroad.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him.

Though you do not see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you, and the things that now have been announced to you through these words, through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

This is the reading of God's powerful, beautiful word.

Let's ask the Spirit's enabling.

Father, we thank you.

We thank you that you so love this world that you gave.

You gave your one and your only Son.

That we would be here today, that we would have life in Christ.

But you also sent your Spirit.

That we would not resist you, but that we would surrender to you, that we would embrace your truth, that we would be changed this morning by your grace.

We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

The title of the sermon this morning is A Living Hope.

This is a passage about hope.

So my question right out of the gate, are you living with hope?

Would those who know you well say that they see that hope in you?

Hope is can be an elusive thing, can it not?

In a recent article in the London Times, a writer trying to draw the various faiths together for Easter wrote that there is this, the article is called the Universal Truths.

The writer suggests that on Easter and Good Friday, these holidays draw people from all various faiths together.

Because we all have the most important thing in common.

The author wrote it commemorates sacrifice, the giving of ourselves, and it's martyrs for the love of others.

He says, So Easter likewise.

Easter itself tells us spiritual truth.

And the more we interact and acquaint ourselves with these different faiths and the beliefs of others, the clearer is the common acceptance of these truths.

So, in conclusion, he said, the Easter message draws the devout together.

Is that true?

I hope you understand that that's not true.

It is what's being proclaimed around many churches, not only in this country but around this world, that the lowest common denominator that we all have together is that because we all are one faith, basically, even though it's expressed in many different fashions and forms.

But that's not what this message is about this morning.

You don't achieve anything by downgrading the unique message of Easter.

We're going to talk this morning about the unique message of Easter.

This is what Peter's writing about.

That what I just read is not the gospel.

All of that can be done without Christ's resurrection.

We can find people who believe in the good in others, who look for the good in other religions, who try to find something in common that we all have, a common source.

Some people call him God, others call him by another name.

And yet, what Peter is writing is that is not where you're going to find hope.

He writes very clearly about this.

This morning we're going to look at the basis of real hope.

Hope, the living hope, how we get it through the new life, and the result, which is our inheritance.

Peter's introduction, notice to the elect exiles, he writes.

Who are these people?

The dispersed.

Many of them were dispersed as they were being persecuted for their Christian faith in the beginning.

They were scattered throughout Asia Minor and beyond.

To the elect exiles, he says, What a striking phrase that is.

Exiles, strangers, foreigners.

What Peter is saying to them is, dear friends, though you're going through many persecutions and many sufferings of all kinds, you're not home yet.

You're in exile.

You're a stranger.

You're a pilgrim on this earth.

And that's a message that we all need to be reminded of.

We're not home yet.

I like the way theologian Ed Clowney put it.

Peter is writing a traveler's guide for Christian pilgrims.

He reminds them that their hope is anchored in their homeland.

They are called to endure alienation as strangers, but they have a heavenly citizenship and a heavenly destiny.

Put another way is Christians have another passport.

The passport that many of us have traveling as we do in Washington, that home country.

That's not your true home, Christian.

That's what Peter is saying to these scattered around the world.

He's saying, your true home is in heaven.

And don't ever lose sight of that.

Because if you do, you're going to lose your hope.

We can get so comfortable in this world that we forget that this isn't home.

Have you made your life so secure and so comfortable that it really feels like this is your home and that this is as good as it gets?

That's not true.

According to this verse 2, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ.

Now there's a whole sermon right there in that verse.

According to the foreknowledge of God.

When the Bible uses this word, it's not talking simply about what God knows is going to happen.

It's not, okay, he fores saw it, so he foreknew it.

That's not the use of that word.

It's really synonymous with for loved.

He saw from before he created this world a people that he would create, that he would love, that he would set his love upon.

Before you were born, God loved you.

That's what Peter's saying.

And he sanctified you by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit gave us faith to believe these truths, to make them our own.

And how did he actually apply it to us?

By the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ to make us his own.

There's a lot packed in that short verse.

You know what is true is not now that God loves you, Christian.

There's never been a day that God hasn't loved you since he saw you.

There was a day when he saved you.

There was a day when he justified you.

There was a day when he sanctified you.

But there's never been a day that he hasn't loved you.

Take that in today.

He has always loved his people.

Always.

This living hope that Peter's talking about, verse 3, according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

Once again, we find this verse just packed with gospel hope.

Peter's hope is sure, as sure as the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead.

We know that initially Peter didn't believe that.

Remember what had happened to Peter at the end?

He failed miserably.

He was concerned enough to follow Jesus into the courtyard where he would be tried, in this kangaroo court.

He was close enough just to keep an eye on what was going on.

But then three different times people said, wait a minute, aren't you one of his followers?

What did he say?

No.

I don't know who he is.

I don't know what you're talking about.

This was Peter at his worst.

Is this the same man writing this kind of a letter?

According to his great mercy, God's great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

This is no longer Peter hiding in a room, afraid that he would be associated with Jesus and be punished.

This is no longer cowardly Peter.

This is bold Peter.

Why?

How?

Because he came to believe that Jesus Christ, though he was dead, was raised from the dead the third day, and that changed everything.

It did for him, and it will for you, if you understand it.

Peter denied even knowing Jesus.

Luke tells us in chapter 22, verse 61.

Right after Peter denied him the third time, listen to what the word says, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

Can you imagine what that look looked like?

What would you imagine?

A look of disgust by Jesus?

A look of contempt?

A look of seriously, Peter?

You made all these promises?

And at a moment's notice, you're gone?

You don't even claim to know me?

No, I don't think that was his look.

I don't think Peter would have made it if that was the look.

I suspect it was the look of love.

It was a look of mercy.

Almost reminiscent of how Jesus prayed for them in the Garden of Gethsemane beforehand.

I think it must have been a look of compassion.

Peter, I know you failed me.

I know that you have betrayed me.

But Peter, I still love you.

Let that sink in this morning.

We've all betrayed him, haven't we?

We've all deserted him.

We've all denied him in various ways at various times.

And yet, when he sets his love on you, nothing can stop his love for you.

I think that's what Peter took in.

It was hard to get over.

It was very hard.

But Peter writes this letter of hope.

He needed hope.

Peter found a living hope and a living Savior.

His hope was grounded in a real resurrection of Jesus, not a hope that is worked up by us or from us.

Isn't that our problem far too much time?

We're trying to work it up.

We're trying to just gin something up because we're going through tough times.

And I've just got to find this inner strength somewhere somehow.

It doesn't work that way.

This kind of hope that the Bible talks about is not something that you work up.

It doesn't come from you.

It's not by you.

If it was, it wouldn't last very long.

And it would not be true hope.

This is God's work.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again.

This comes from the outside.

Isn't that good news?

Don't you really understand that you couldn't?

You're not capable of this.

Neither am I.

Do you understand that?

God's not asking you today to work something up, to muster it yourself.

He says, I've got something far better to offer you.

I'm going to bring it to you.

I'm going to give it to you.

Just as he says, He has caused us to be born again.

The means of our new birth is not first the message of the resurrection.

You're thinking, wait a minute, Pastor, isn't that what you're doing right now?

Yes.

But that's not what it's grounded in.

It's not grounded in the message of the resurrection.

It's grounded in the fact of the resurrection.

Do you know every other religion essentially says it's all about the teaching?

Except Christianity.

Christianity says it's not mostly about the teaching.

All the other religions say, find the teaching.

Hold on to the teaching.

Live by the teaching.

Not Christianity.

Christianity says it is based on historical fact.

The Son of God was crucified on the cross for sinners like us.

He was put into a real grave.

He was dead for three days.

And on the third day, God the Father raised him from the dead because that's the power that God has.

This is what Christianity is based on at.

Therefore, go and take now that teaching of your understanding of real history and believe it.

Take it into your souls.

This is the hope.

When Christ rose, he secured our salvation.

Our hope is anchored in the past because Jesus rose.

So let's talk about how this hope actually becomes ours.

Through new life.

The new life given to Jesus and the new life given to us.

This is what Peter's saying.

The Apostle Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 20.

1 Corinthians 15:20

He said, But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Did you catch that?

Jesus' resurrection was the first of many to follow.

For everyone who follows the Lord Jesus Christ, for everyone who's been saved by the power of the gospel, you one day will be raised from your grave.

Wherever that may be, whatever form it might be in, because Jesus is raised alive.

You will be raised alive.

Peter says, bank on that.

The only reason we can have new life is because God gave his son new life at the resurrection.

What we have, we have in Christ.

He has caused us to be born again.

Let those words sink in.

He has caused it.

It's not of you.

It's not by you.

It's by him.

How many of you willed yourselves to be born into this world?

Anybody?

You better not raise your hand or you're gonna have to go back to school.

You didn't will yourself to be born.

You didn't have the desire, oh, I want to be born.

No, God planted you as an embryo in your mother's womb.

God caused you to be born in this world biologically.

Only God can cause you to be born spiritually.

This is what the Bible calls the new birth.

This is the new birth that Peter's writing about right now.

This is what brings life.

It's his power, it's his mercy.

Put your faith in Jesus Christ.

Don't put your faith in your faith.

Don't put your faith in yourself.

Don't put your faith in your good deeds, your religious duties.

That'll never get you there.

It's because of his great mercy that you were born in your mother's womb.

And it's because of his great mercy that you're born into the kingdom of God.

It's the Holy Spirit who does the birth.

Did you know that?

The Holy Spirit is the one who births us into the kingdom of God.

He gives us faith.

But you respond.

By faith you receive what he's offering you.

This is the new birth.

It's his power, it's his mercy.

The Bible says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

This is the promise of the Bible.

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

May I ask you this morning, have you done that?

Have you ever done that?

Have you confessed with your mouth, Jesus is Lord?

Confess with your tongue.

Have you made that public proclamation?

Have you believed in your heart that this is all true?

That God actually did raise his son from the dead, and because he's alive, you can be alive in Christ.

You must do that.

None of this happens automatically.

You know that.

None of this happens because you were born in a certain family.

None of this happens because you come to this church.

It only happens when the Holy Spirit directly works faith in your heart to believe and to receive and to confess these truths.

This is the basis for our hope, the life-giving power of God through the resurrection of His Son.

This hope is our anchor, the anchor of our soul.

Anchors give stability to boats.

The anchor holds when the currents push against us.

I remember being in a boat one time when I thought the anchor was secured and it wasn't.

I kind of dozed off a little bit.

And I noticed that the boat was moving toward the rocks.

That my anchor wasn't holding.

Well, it wasn't secure.

How about your anchor?

Who or what is your anchor?

You must know that.

It's critical that you know this.

If it's not in Christ, you're not going to be able to sustain the winds that crash upon the boat of your life.

You're going to drift.

If it's not Christ, the winds and the waves are going to blow your life in many different directions, none of which is going to be good.

The anchor for our souls is in a resurrected Savior.

Who loved us so much that he literally died on the cross to save us, to give us new life, to give us hope.

Do you need hope?

A lot of people seem to need hope today.

There's a lot of crazy things going on all around us in our world, in our country.

A lot of crazy things.

People's health, crises, financial hardships, relational, relational fractures.

There's so much, so many kinds.

That's why Peter says in verse 6, in this you rejoice, though now for a little while you have been grieved by various trials.

I don't think he's minimizing it when he says, for a little while, Peter himself endured hardship for many years.

Peter himself would die.

Church tradition tells us he was crucified upside down in the city of Rome.

He did not consider himself worthy to be crucified as his Savior was.

There are many trials in this world.

Peter knew that full well.

Peter writes this during the reign of Nero, the emperor.

Nero, who would persecute many thousands of Christians and put them to death.

This is the crowd that Peter's writing to.

This wasn't just a little inspiration.

These people didn't need just a little inspiring devotional to kickstart their day.

They needed something that would hold them fast.

Because they knew what they were up against.

Do you know what you're up against?

Whatever it is, however hardship it might be, Jesus is the hope.

Jesus is the anchor that holds us.

For a little while, again, he's not trying to, he's not minimizing it.

Look, if we suffer on this earth for decades, and some people do, if we suffer greatly for decades on this earth, the Bible and the perspective of the Bible says it's still for just a little while.

Because the Bible is always contrasting our time on earth like this with a thimble, with a vast ocean of time, eternity.

You know your soul's going to live forever.

Whether you believe it or not, it's true, the Bible says you're going to live forever.

Your soul will either be with God or not with God.

You will either be in torment or you will be in ecstasy, in delight, in paradise.

It's either one or the other.

That's the message of the Bible.

Though for a little while you have been grieved by various trials, that word means many different kinds of trials.

I know we all wish that we could live without the trials.

That's a human response.

Why does God permit trials in our lives?

For two reasons at least.

Trials show us where we really are spiritually.

You know, sometimes you know you think you're in really good health or really good shape, and then you get a physical doctor says, hey, you know, you're gonna have to really adjust your lifestyle.

You're gonna have to make some serious changes.

You're not in as good a shape as you thought you were, or good a health as you thought you were.

Trials show us where we really are, not where we simply think we are in our spiritual life.

But secondly, trials not only show us, but they grow us spiritually.

They exercise our soul.

You go to the gym, you get a personal trainer.

What's the first thing that that trainer's gonna do?

Give you an evaluation.

See where you're strong, see where you're weak, see what muscles really need to be worked on the most.

Your soul needs a personal trainer.

Your soul, my soul needs a personal trainer.

It'll come in and look and say, okay, this is what we're gonna work on.

This is what we're gonna work on.

And it's gonna be good, and you're gonna feel better, and you're gonna feel different.

But not without the work.

This is the way God builds faith.

This is the way God builds hope and the anchor that we have in Christ.

As I said, Paul wrote this letter from Rome.

This is where Paul.

I've been to the jail, Miamertine prison in Rome where they believe that Peter was put.

It's really interesting from the first time I saw it to the last time I saw it, they've really kind of dalled it all up now.

It's kind of amazing, just like 15, 20 years.

It's really nice now.

You go into that dungeon, but it's all lit up, and they've got nice pictures, and they've got lights all over the place so you can see where you're walking.

The first time I went in it, it was it was dark, it was dirty, it was a little smelly.

And this was 2,000 years later.

There's a hole in the top where they would just lower down the prisoner, and they would have to live in all the things that you can imagine they would have to live in in that condition.

This is where Peter likely was put.

Where Peter was, uh, where the seat of government is for the Roman government, the forum, it's just a stone's throw away from the Colosseum.

The Colosseum where Nero would slaughter thousands and thousands of Christians because they were followers of Jesus Christ.

This this was not a little inspiring message that we're looking at this morning.

This message is for people who really need hope because they're going through hard circumstances in life.

This is for people who are looking for real answers.

This is why it's such a hopeful letter.

Surely there will be various trials for us, yet our living hope will anchor us just as it did for them.

Verse 6 in the text in this you greatly rejoice.

What it says literally in the Greek is you greatly rejoice with joy.

Just piling up these words.

You greatly rejoice with joy.

Isn't that redundant?

Apparently not.

Rejoice.

This is a verb that the Greek writers, the secular Greek writers didn't even use.

What does it mean to rejoice?

They were stoics.

You know, stiffen up your lip.

Take resolve, take control of your life, be the master of your destiny.

There's something much better than that that God's offering us.

He says, I want you to turn to me.

I can give you a joy.

Verse 8, I can give you a joy that you rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

What would that look like in your life if you believed it?

What does that look like in my life?

A joy that is inexpressible.

This is the only time in the New Testament this word is used.

A joy so profound to be beyond power for words to express.

It's the joy of heaven before heaven.

Do you know that that's possible?

To have the joy of heaven before you get to heaven.

But it's found in a person, not a philosophy, not a set of religious teachings.

It's found in the resurrected Savior Jesus Christ.

And you hook into him by faith because he's the kind of God that gives new birth to people without hope.

He can give that new birth to you today.

He's done it many, many, many times before over many years.

Why not you?

He talks about this inheritance in verse 4, an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.

Inheritances are nice, aren't they?

Some people wait for a long time to get an earthly inheritance.

Peter's talking about waiting to get a spiritual, heavenly inheritance.

True treasure.

Not only is this an inheritance kept for us by God, we are kept for our inheritance as well by God.

You say, well, what's the difference?

Well, what Peter's saying is God keeps the inheritance for all Christians under custody, under his safekeeping.

So that inheritance is waiting for you.

That inheritance is waiting for you when you draw your last breath on this earth and you are transported into the presence of God.

There will be a rich inheritance.

That's beautiful.

But do you catch the second part?

Not only is the inheritance kept, but we are kept for the inheritance.

What if you don't make it?

What if there's that beautiful inheritance waiting, reserved, but you don't make it to the finish line?

Well, why wouldn't you make it to the finish line?

Well, I suppose there's lots of reasons.

You just turn your back on Jesus.

You walk away.

You say, I really don't.

I'm not going to confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord.

I'm not going to confess that Jesus is the Lord of my life.

I'm going to be the Lord of my life.

You can't have it.

You can't have that.

There's no inheritance for you.

This inheritance is for his children who have been born again by the Holy Spirit, who have been brought into new life by faith.

That is who this inheritance is for.

But he also will keep you, Christian.

When you get down, he will pick you up.

When you get knocked down, he's there with you to pick you back up.

When you falter, when you are unfaithful, the Bible says he will be faithful.

If you're his, he will keep you.

He will keep you to the end.

That gives me a lot of encouragement through my life.

Because there have been a lot of times where I could have lost my way.

Could have really just walked away.

And yet I feel the presence of his spirit calling me back.

Tom, Jesus is your anchor.

Jesus is your anchor.

Yes.

Yes.

Martin Roy Jones, the great theologian in Britain who lived through the World War II, knows all about, knew all about hardships and trials in life with all the bombings.

Went on to become a very gifted preacher.

Said the world doesn't pay much attention to all the activities in our churches these days.

The one thing it will notice is people who are filled with joy.

This is how Christianity conquered the Roman world.

Even when they were being thrown into prison or death, it did not matter.

They went on rejoicing even in their trials.

That's true.

They did.

How?

Because they had an anchor.

And their anchor was in a person who was made alive again.

And he's going to be your anchor too, if you put your faith in him, if you trust him.

Tim Keller once wrote an article called How Jesus is like a life quake.

A life quake.

When a great big truck goes over a tiny little bridge, sometimes there's a bridge quake.

When a big man goes onto thin ice, there can be an ice quake.

Whenever Jesus Christ comes down into a person's life, there is always a life quake.

Have you experienced that life quake?

Has your life been changed?

Would anybody be able to say that they see, they have seen the change in you?

Would there be enough evidence to convict you of a life quake?

What Keller goes on to say, imagine you had a dear friend who was dying of a very rare disease, and you bring this friend to a doctor.

The doctor says, you'll be dead in a week.

However, I can cure you, but I want to know if if I give you the remedy, there's one thing.

This will keep you alive for the rest of your life, but this is the one thing.

Are you ready for it?

This is the one thing.

You can never eat chocolate again.

And you think for 30 seconds?

Well, that's a really hard decision.

I love my chocolate.

I can't ever eat chocolate again?

Forget it.

And you say to your friend, Are you crazy?

You say, Tom, where's this going?

This is the only thing that matters.

Do you believe that Jesus, the Son of God, was crucified for your sin?

Do you believe that he was raised from the dead on the third day?

And that in him you have real life, and you have life that'll last forever, and you have an inheritance that's waiting for you that will never spoil, never fade.

And you will be in his arms and you will be in his fellowship for eternity.

And you say, no, thanks.

I want my chocolate.

Meaning, no, I'm not ready to surrender my life.

Uh I think I'm I think I want to be in control of my own life.

And I'll take my chances.

Come on.

Are you crazy?

Give your life to Jesus.

He gave his life to you.

Find real joy.

Find real hope.

Find an anchor that will get you through whatever you have to deal with in life.

He is your hope.

He is your anchor.

He came to be your savior and your Lord.

Embrace him.

Embrace him this day.

Please pray with me.

Oh Father, we are humbled that you would be willing to abandon your son so that we might find this kind of life.

It was your son who said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Jesus, thank you for being abandoned and forsaken, that we might find real hope, that we might find a real anchor, that we might have a real future and a real home one day in heaven.

We bow before you now.

We bow before you.

We receive you by faith.

Forgive us.

Cleanse us.

Make us new.

Oh Lord Jesus, we want to live with you.

We want to live for you.

Give us new birth.

Give us the new birth if that's what we need.

Lord, give us a fresh understanding of the new birth if that's what we need.

Lord Jesus, you are so merciful.

You are so gracious and loving.

We thank you and we praise you.

Amen.