Easter Sunday | "Living Hope for Today’s Trials" 1 Peter 1:1-9 | Sunday, April 5, 2026

And I'll invite you to take your Bibles

and turn to First Peter chapter 1. If

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

you don't have a Bible this morning,

there are some on the shelf underneath

the chair in front of you. And you're

welcome to use that Bible. And if you

don't have a Bible at home, we ask that

you'd keep that Bible, take it home with

you, and let the word of God become a

part of your everyday life. We would

love for you to take that. 1 Peter

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. If you're not sure where that

is, it's toward the end of the New

Testament. If you go to the very last

book of Revelation and turn back seven

books, you'll come to First Peter

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1.

1 Peter chapter 1. Our text this morning

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

will come from verse one through verse

number nine. I hope to just share with

you a simple message this morning

entitled, Living Hope for Today's

Trials. Living hope for today's trials.

1 Peter chapter 1, beginning verse one.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to

the strangers scattered throughout

Pontis, Galatia, Capidosia, Asia, and

Bethnia, elect according to the

fornowledge of God the Father, through

sanctification of the spirit unto

obedience and sprinkling of the blood of

Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace

be multiplied.

Blessed be the God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ, which according to

his abundant mercy, hath begotten us

again unto a lively hope by the

resurrection of Jesus Christ from the

dead, to an inheritance incorruptible

and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,

reserved in heaven for you who are kept

by the power of God through faith unto

salvation, ready to be revealed in the

last time, wherein ye greatly rejoice,

though now for a season, if need be, ye

are in heaviness through manifold

temptations, that the trial of your

faith, being much more precious than of

gold that perisheth, though it be tried

with fire, might be found unto praise

and honor and glory at the appearing of

Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, ye

love, in whom though ye see him not yet

believing, ye rejoice with joy

unspeakable

and full of glory, receiving the end of

your faith, even the salvation of your

souls.

Though this long run-on sentence from

verse three continues through verse 12,

we're going to stop our reading there

and consider the living hope that we

have for today's trials. Let's pray and

ask God to help us understand his word.

Our heavenly father, we need the power

and revelation of your holy spirit to

grasp these wonderful, precious truths

that belong to us in Christ. And so I

ask that you would shine the light upon

your word for us this morning to help us

see what you have for us to help us

believe it and to lay hold of these

truths

as we face the trials of today. And may

Christ be glorified by a faith that is

purified

though it be by fire and to the glory of

Jesus Christ. It's in his name that we

ask these things. Amen. Thank you for

standing in honor of God's word. You can

be seated.

I want you to imagine with me this

morning that you are going to a foreign

country. You've checked your bags.

You've boarded a flight to Japan. You

land and you get off the plane and all

the signs in the airport are in

Japanese. But thankfully, there's just

enough English in very small print

underneath the Japanese language that

you can get by. You make it to your

rental car and you get it checked out

and you go to get into the driver's seat

and you realize that you're on the wrong

side. There's no steering wheel there.

and then you pull out into the road and

you accidentally pull into the right

side of the road when everybody drives

on the left side of the road and you're

in trouble very quickly. It's a problem.

Perhaps as you drive through the city,

you see Buddhist temples everywhere and

a Christian church is nowhere to be

found. Perhaps you get on the public

train and no one is talking to each

other, which if you've ever been on a

New York train or a Boston train, it's

it's kind of loud. It's kind of

boisterous. If you've been on the light

rail here in Denver, you know it can get

kind of loud and crazy, especially after

a a sports game. But as people drive on

the train in Japan, nobody talks to each

other. Nobody makes eye contact. It's

dead silence.

You go to the store, the cashier bows to

you. You're not sure what to do with

that. And so you take out a couple bucks

to give them a tip. And they have this

look of appall and disgust written on

their face because tipping is a big no

no in Japan. That alone makes me want to

move to Japan. If I could say that

it's just different.

See, when you don't know the language

and you come from a different culture

and you live a different lifestyle, you

can struggle to fit in.

Sometimes you feel isolated. You might

feel offensive or uncomfortable at every

turn.

At times you may even feel excluded

in a different place.

You know, that's what it can often feel

like as a Christian living in an

unbelieving world because you speak

somewhat of a different language, a

different vernacular and vocabulary.

You have a different culture. You live a

different life and you carry a different

message. And the life you live and the

message that you carry can often lead to

your exclusion.

It could be that you're excluded from a

job or from a promotion that comes with

a big pay raise. You might be isolated

from family that views you as too

radical in your faith.

It might be that when you converted to

Christianity, you were abandoned by an

old group of friends.

Sometimes living as a Christian in an

unbelieving world can even lead to

physical suffering in our lives to

sometimes mental or psychological

struggles that we call trials and

temptations.

We all go through them and at times even

though you live in what might be your

home country you feel more and more like

a foreigner.

And that's exactly the type of people

that Peter is addressing in this letter.

They were believers who felt like they

were exiles in a place they called home.

This region that's uh makes up what is

now modern Turkey was called Asia Minor.

That's where these believers are

scattered about.

They felt because their faith in Christ

that they've been socially excluded that

they fa faced economic hardships and

even familial estrangement.

It has led to what Peter calls in this

text

manifold

temptations,

a variety of trials and testings of

their faith.

To comfort these exiled saints,

Peter reminds them of their identity in

Christ, of the hope of the resurrection,

and of the joy of their faith.

Peter believes that the resurrection of

Jesus could help them face today's

trials.

Let me give you Peter's message in a

nutshell.

Scattered saints receive secured hope

that sustains joy through the

resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That's what he's communicating. So, let

me run that by you one more time and

then we're going to flesh it out in this

message. Scattered saints receive

secured joy that sustains or secured

hope that sustains joy through the

resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The resurrection, I want to tell you, is

not some abstract theological mystery.

Nor is it a Christian fantasy.

His resurrection provides real tangible

hope as you face trials in this life

today. It truly does.

If you're here and you're not a

Christian this morning, sometimes coming

to church can feel like going to a

foreign country.

They speak biblical words that you've

never heard in your life.

It's kind of a different culture.

I mean, where else do you go where a

large congregation lifts up their voices

in song?

Even if you go to a secular concert,

most of the time it's taking in the

performance. And yet, when you come to a

church, the congregation sings together.

It's a little different.

You aren't quite sure what the

resurrection means for you. You're not

quite sure how you belong, how you fit

in. And yet, here you are for some

reason on Easter Sunday.

God has done something in your heart to

bring you to this place today to hear

this message from his word. God knows

you and he wants you here today.

And I want to share with you

the fact that Peter's message can apply

to you as well, but only if you believe

on Jesus Christ.

The first thing that we notice in our

text is that Peter specifies that his

message is for scattered saints. If you

look at verse one, it says, "Peter, an

apostle of Jesus Christ." What that

tells us is that Peter's message carries

weight. He has been sent by Jesus to

proclaim the death, burial, and

resurrection of Christ, to witness of

what he saw with his own eyes,

and to lay the foundation of the church.

That's what Christ assigned him to do.

Therefore, what he says we can accept is

true and know that it's real. He

addresses in verse one to the strangers

scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia,

Capidosia, Asia, and Bethnia, this area

of modern Turkey. And then notice he

says elect

as well.

The word strangers means temporary

residents or foreign citizens that

because they fall under an unsanctioned

religion, they aren't given the same

rights and protections as others.

Therefore, they're treated like

foreigners. See, all of the the the

religions of paganism and Greek

mythology, those were all protected

rights. And eventually, the Jewish

religion became protected under Roman

rule throughout the Roman and Greek

world. But what we have seen as we've

studied the book of Acts is that the

Jews are very quick before the Roman

leadership to separate Christianity from

Judaism. And by the time that Peter is

writing this letter, Christianity is

seen outside of Judaism and therefore is

not protected by the same rights as

others.

That means that this has led to

suffering.

This has led to mistreatment.

This has led to hardship. It says that

they are strangers who are scattered

throughout this region. The word

scattered is the word diaspora, the

dispersement. It's typically used to

speak of the exile of the Jewish people

from their homeland into foreign

territory. And so when you consider what

Peter is saying, he's like, these

believers though they live at home are

like exiles.

They don't belong. Why? because they are

citizens of a heavenly kingdom living in

foreign territory.

That's who they are.

Yet in verse two, it says elect.

Elect describes those scattered

strangers. The word elect means chosen

by God. It means that they are precious.

They are choice. They are peculiar,

different, separated unto God. They're

like the fine china that you take out of

the regular cabinets and put into a fine

glass cabinet on display. They're

precious. Those are the ones you don't

let the kids play with. Those are the

ones you only break out when you got

something special going on. That's the

idea of this word elect. They are chosen

and precious in God's sight. Though they

don't know where they belong, Peter

wants them to know to whom they belong,

and that is to their God.

Now how they came to be both chosen and

in this scattered condition was through

what Peter says in verse two was

according to the fornowledge of God the

father. The fornowledge of God the

father.

Now what exactly does that mean? When we

were back in Acts two because I know all

of you remember that from like February

of last year. Um when we were in Acts 2,

Peter was preaching on Pentecost and he

talked about how Jesus was delivered

into the hands of the Jews according to

the determinate counsel and fornowledge

of God. When Peter speaks of this word

fornowledge, he's not just saying that

God already knew beforehand what would

happen. It conveys the idea that God has

predetermined that something would

happen. that God has ordained that they

would be chosen according to his divine

sovereign plan to save sinners. Well,

the question is, how did he plan to save

sinners? Notice it says this, through

sanctification of the spirit unto

obedience and sprinkling of the blood of

Jesus Christ. Friends, this is what we

call the new covenant language found in

the prophecy of Ezekiel chapter 36.

Ezekiel 36 · chapter mention

Listen to what God says will happen when

he sends his Messiah in the last days.

He said this, "Then will I sprinkle

clean water upon you, and ye shall be

clean, and I will put my spirit within

you, and cause you to walk in my

statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments

and do them, and ye shall be my people,

and I will be your God." You know what

that conveys? In the last days when I

send the Messiah to be the savior of the

world, I will sprinkle you clean. I will

put my spirit in you. He will cause you

to be obedient and I will call you my

own.

That is the language that Peter is

drawing from here. That God had a plan

hundreds of years before Jesus ever

came. that he would suffer and die on a

cross and shed his blood to atone the

sins of mankind so that all who would

believe on him would be sprinkled by his

blood clean from all their sin. And that

those who believe on him would receive

the Holy Spirit who gives them a whole

new nature that is awakened to

righteousness and lives in obedience to

God. That is the power of the Holy

Spirit in your life. And perhaps the

best of all is that he would call us my

people. You see it? Sprinkled,

sanctified,

obedient,

chosen. That was God's pre-ordained plan

before the foundation of the world to

redeem sinful humanity.

question.

How does the scripture teach that we

receive this sprinkling? How does it

teach that we receive the Holy Spirit?

How does it teach that we become

obedient? How does it teach that we

become God's people? The answer every

time is through faith in Jesus Christ.

And so what what Paul is or Peter is

getting at here is that these believers

who are estranged and scattered because

of their faith, they are chosen of God.

They are elect. They are set apart,

sanctified and precious in God's sight.

And the way that they have ended up

where they are and the way they have

ended up as who they are is according to

God's divine plan of redemption. You are

exactly who God called you to be. and

you're doing exactly what God called you

to do. Your entire situation of life has

come about by God's plan.

It is to these people who are sprinkled

and sanctified and chosen that Peter

addresses his letter.

When you check the mail and grab a stack

of envelopes and you scan through those,

you realize that if there is something

in there that's not addressed to you,

you don't get to open it.

If the mailer gets it there to the

postman gets it there to you when it

belongs to your neighbor and you open

that up and it's got their name on it

and it's got a check inside of it for

$10,000,

you have no authority to cash that

check. Why? because your name's not on

it. The truths that Peter is about to

give to these believers cannot be cashed

by those whose names are not on the

check. And so what that means is for you

to understand and to lay hold on the

claims that Peter is about to give, you

must become God's people through faith

in Jesus Christ. Can I ask, is that you

today?

Have you been sanctified by the Holy

Spirit? Have you been cleansed by the

blood of Jesus Christ? Have you been

chosen by God through faith in Christ? I

want you to understand today that every

one of us were born sinners and our sin

separates us from God and it leaves us

condemned under his wrath. But God

promised before the world ever began to

send his son Jesus to sacrifice his life

and shed his blood on the cross as an

innocent lamb without blemish to atone

for and cover all of your sins past,

present, and future. And this God has

promised to you that if you will believe

on his son, your sins can be forgiven,

your eternal soul can be saved, and you

can have eternal life. And you know why

that's good news? Because even if you

came into this building today, unable to

cash this check because of your

unbelief.

You can leave today with a check in

hand, cashed in full, ready to claim

what Christ gives you. Would you trust

in him today?

Now that we know who this message is

for, let's see what this message is,

specifically as it pertains to the

resurrection of Christ. How does the

resurrection help you face today's

trials? Number one, the resurrection

secures our future hope. It secures our

future hope. Peter begins in verse three

saying blessed be the God and father of

our Lord Jesus Christ. The word blessed

is the word eulogize.

It means to speak well of someone to

give praise unto them. And so what Peter

is doing here is he begins by saying

churches I know that you are going

through manifold temptations. I know the

pressure is real, that life is heavy,

but I want you to know that we still

have every good reason to give praise to

God in the midst of these trials. Well,

why exactly is that? He says, which

according to his abundant mercy hath

begotten us again unto a lively hope by

the resurrection of Jesus Christ from

the dead.

Let's break this down here for a moment.

When you believe the gospel, he says you

are begotten again. What does that sound

like? Born again. Not a natural birth,

but a spiritual birth. It means that

your old sinful flesh is put to death

and you are awakened to righteousness

with a whole new nature because the Holy

Spirit of God lives within you and gives

you a desire you've never had to please

God with all your life. You're new

nature. You're completely different. The

Bible says, "Old things are passed away

and behold, all things are become new."

If any man be in Christ, he is a new

creature. You have a new nature. You're

born again. But notice what you are born

again to a living hope. A hope that is

not dead. A hope that is alive and well

today. How so? By the resurrection of

Jesus Christ from the dead. His

resurrection tells you that you will

rise again. It tells you that your hope

did not stay dead in the grave with

Jesus Christ. No, it rose again from the

grave with Jesus Christ. You have a

living hope. But what I want to point

out to you is that you do not have this

living hope because you are good. You

don't have this living hope because you

are moral. You don't have this living

hope because of your religious

performance. What does Peter say here?

It is according to God's abundant mercy.

Paul would say it this way to Titus. Not

by works of righteousness which we have

done, but according to his mercy he

saved us. What is mercy? It is getting

something that you do not deserve.

It is getting freedom when you deserve

prison. It is getting life when you

deserve death. It is getting health when

you deserve disease. It's God's mercy.

There is nothing good in us that can

ever merit the mercy of God because

there's too much bad in us. No matter

how moral we are, no matter how

religious we are, no matter how

righteous we think we are, the reality

is God is so holy and so sinless that

even one sin in his presence would

defile his holiness.

The Bible says he is of purer eyes than

to behold evil. He can't even look at

it.

God must do something in abundant mercy

to enable you to be forgiven. And what

he has done is he has sent his only son

to die for your sin. But God raised him

from the dead to prove to you that he

can give life to whoever he says. And he

says he will give life to those who

believe. Those who believe. That is

God's mercy, my friends. I want you to

notice now what we are begotten to. What

is this living hope? Would you look at

verse four? This is continuing this

interjection here. He says in verse

number three that he has begotten us

again unto a lively hope by the

resurrection of Jesus Christ from the

dead. Look at verse four to an

inheritance

incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth

not away reserved in heaven for you.

What does that mean?

I don't know, but it sounds real good.

An inheritance.

The Bible tells us that those who are in

Christ inherit or receive as a

possession from their heavenly father

eternal life. That is our inheritance. a

new life in a new heaven and a new earth

in the presence of God forever. That is

our inheritance. Notice how he describes

this inheritance. He says first that it

is incorruptable.

You know what that means? Imperishable.

What does that mean? It lasts forever.

See, we live in a world where everything

falls apart. Right? I mentioned that

just yesterday we were out in a

neighborhood off 19th in Kalia inviting

people to come to Easter services this

morning and as soon as it dropped off

the two groups that we had with us I

started seeing smoke coming up out of

the hood of the church van and I'm like

that's not good. I'm looking at the the

coolant gauge there and it says that

everything's fine but I turn it off. I

go and open the hood and a a coolant

hose had faded and deteriorated and

cracked and it was spewing out

anifreeze. Isn't that how our world

works? Your car breaks down. Your AC

quits. Computers become old and slow

down and deteriorate and become

dysfunctional. And if you're over the

age of 50, you know this that as you

age, your body starts falling apart.

That's the world that we live in. Yet

Peter says the inheritance that we will

receive is incorruptible.

Nothing falls apart. Nothing breaks

down. Nothing ends. The inheritance that

we receive in Christ lasts forever.

There's no aging. There's no death. And

therefore, there's no funerals.

Everything lasts forever. It's

incorruptible. But then notice that he

says that it is undefiled.

I don't know that we can truly imagine a

world that is undefiled by sin.

All that we know is corruption

from the top to the bottom.

All we know is the defiling nature of

drugs and alcohol, the defiling nature

of abusive relationships,

the uh defiling nature of sexual

assault,

war,

crimes.

That's what we know. And yet what Peter

says here is that this inheritance that

we have is a world in which it is

completely undefiled by sin.

We're talking about the fact that that

it's a world without locks, without

alarms, without security systems because

nobody steals.

Uh if you're if you're my age, you

remember a world where you irritated

your parents so much that they said, "Go

play at the park.

I'm not going with you. You just go

yourself, your brothers. I don't care

who you take with you. Just just go

play." you know, for my brothers to go

play hockey and, you know, the parents

just get out of my hair. That's kind of

how it was. As a parent now in this day,

I can't imagine a world where I would

tell my precious children at 7 8 9 10

years old, "Hey, go play at the park all

by yourself with nobody around you.

The world to come, friends,

will be better than I've ever known."

Some of you with gray hair, it'll be

better than you remember as a child.

Kids will be able to play wherever they

want, whenever they want, however they

want, without having to worry about

kidnapping, without ever having to worry

about being hurt, without ever having to

worry about being hit by cars. Because

everybody will be perfect. There will be

no sin. There will be nothing defiling

in that world. Friends, that is a reason

to rejoice. There's no military. There's

no police. There's no war. There's no

court systems. There's no jails. This

inheritance cannot be morally

compromised, nor can it be sinfully

polluted. It is a world that is

impossible for us to fathom and yet is a

world that all of us will lay hold of

through faith in Jesus Christ. What hope

is that? And then he says this, that

fadeth not away. It's an unfading

world.

What does that mean? Well, nothing loses

quality

or beauty.

There will be no makeup in heaven.

There will be no pimples in heaven. No

fading, no blemishing, no skin spots.

There will be no COVID. There will be no

cancer.

Everything that we experience that

brings hardship and struggle in this

life. Everything in this world that

loses quality and fades over time, it

will never be heard of in the world to

come. That my friends is the inheritance

that we have received. And notice it

says in verse four that it is reserved

in heaven for you. Reserved.

What does that mean? Well, when you go

to a fine banquet and you give them the

ticket in, they lead you to a seat with

your name on it. And guess what?

Nobody's sitting there. Why? Because

it's yours. It's reserved for you. Well,

listen. Your faith in Jesus Christ, the

sprinkling of his blood, the

sanctification of his spirit is your

ticket into this inheritance. And God

says there's a seat at the table with

your name on it and nobody's going to

sit there and nobody's going to take it

away. It belongs to you who. This is

good. Verse number five. It belongs to

you who are kept by the power of God

through faith unto salvation ready to be

revealed in the last time. You know what

this means?

God is your bodyguard.

You're kept by him, secured by him. Can

I ask you, is anyone more powerful than

God?

Is anyone more eternal than God? Is

anyone stronger than God? Is anyone able

to defeat God? Is anyone able to loosen

his grip? Is God more powerful than

anyone and everyone else? Yes, that God

is the one who is keeping you until the

day of salvation that is already ready

to be revealed. Hey, Christ, what did he

say to his disciples? I go away to

prepare a place for you. That place, my

friends, is ready right now at any

moment when Christ would return. That is

the hope of the resurrection of Jesus

Christ. Because just as he told his

disciples, he did leave. He ascended

into heaven. He's prepared a place for

us in his eternal kingdom around the

throne of God where we can live forever

in this incorruptible, undefiled,

unfading world that is reserved in

heaven for you. This inheritance is

secure.

It can never be lost.

No matter how much you sin, no matter

how badly you suffer, no matter the

trials you face, the resurrection of

Christ gives you this hope. And this

hope is secured by the power of God. And

for that, we can all join in with Peter

and say, "Blessed be God."

>> Praise to him. This is why we gather on

a Sunday morning. This is why at Boulder

Valley, we do our music the way we do.

It's wonderful if you can have

instrumentalists up there and we have

some of that and it's wonderful if you

can have a group of people singing. But

but listen friends, as Bible believing

Christians, it should not be about a

performance going on on the platform. It

should be about a congregation lifting

up our voices together because of the

shared inheritance we have through Jesus

Christ. That's why we sing praise

together as a congregation. This is why

we're gathering again tonight at 6 PM

for a special resurrection edition of

Sing the Gospel Tonight where we can

lift up our voices time and time again

to praise God. Because according to his

abundant mercy, he has begotten us again

unto a living hope by the resurrection

of Jesus Christ from the dead to an

inheritance incorruptible and undefiled

and that fadeth not away reserved in

heaven for you who are kept by the power

of God unto salvation ready to be

reserved or ready to be revealed in the

last time. That's why we gather to

praise.

God has secured this hope through Jesus

Christ.

If the resurrection

secures our future hope, how does it

affect our lives today? That is Peter's

next point.

That the resurrection

that secures our hope also sustains our

joy in today's trials. Look at verse

number six.

Wherein,

what does that mean? In everything we

just talked about, ye greatly rejoice.

Greatly. There's much rejoicing. That's

not like a little smirk on your face.

This is like when the Broncos win the

Super Bowl,

when the ABS win the Stanley Cup, and

they're shouting and cheering and

rejoicing, going all around over a piece

of silver.

We're talking about an inheritance that

never fades away. One that can't be

dented like the Stanley Cup was when the

ABS were celebrating last time. No, it's

one that's eternal. One that's lasting.

And the world rejoices over such

temporal things. Friends, believers, we

have reason to rejoice over eternal

things. He says, "Wherein you greatly

rejoice, but watch this. Though now for

a season, if need be, you're in

heaviness through manifold temptations.

You catch what he's saying here? They

are rejoicing

greatly in spite of the testing of their

faith on a variety of fronts. These

believers continue to rejoice though

they feel like exiles.

Though they feel scattered, though they

feel like foreigners living at home,

they still rejoice.

They're in heaviness through manifold

temptations.

He says these testings

try your faith

like gold in a fire. Look what he says

in verse seven. that the trial of your

faith being much more precious than of

gold that perisheth though it be tried

with fire might be found unto praise and

honor and glory at the appearing of

Jesus Christ. Do you see what he's

saying here?

You if you put gold in a fire, what's it

going to do? It's going to melt away the

impurities.

But you know what that's saying? It's

perishing.

that there's imperfections in it that

are being cast off. But if you heat gold

up enough, it will totally and

completely liquefy into almost nothing.

But what he's saying is that's that's

not you.

Your faith is more precious than of

gold. That though it is tried by fire,

it's not going to melt away. It's not

going to fade away. Rather, as your

faith endures these manifold

temptations, when Jesus Christ appear

appears, it will be presented to him

unto praise, honor, and glory. Why?

Because it validates that he was worthy

of your faith in spite of all you faced.

He's worthy.

But how how do they rejoice in the midst

of suffering? Because all of us go

through seasons of suffering, trials,

and testings. They put our test to the

faith. And sometimes you might wonder,

"Is my faith too shakable?

Is my faith too impure?

Will I withstand what I'm going

through?" It could be a medical

diagnosis and the impending treatment

that comes. Or it could be the loss of a

job and the financial ramifications

thereof. It could be strained

relationships because of your faith.

Sometimes it could be that you had to

quit a job or turn down a job or a

promotion because of your commitment to

worship with God's people. Or it could

be that you're financially stressed

right now because of your commitment to

give to the Lord and to the work of

missions around the world.

Could be that you're looked down at

work. It could be that you're branded

intolerant by your family or socially

unacceptable by the culture around you.

Sometimes our faith can be tried by the

sufferings of others.

when a leading Christian is gunned down

in cold blood

or when a basketball player is cut from

his team because of his religious

statements

or when business people are dragged

before the Supreme Court because of

their stances of faith. Even their

sufferings can test us whether we will

compromise and stay silent or if we will

stay true and be bold. They're trials of

our faith. But sometimes you can be

tempted hard by Satan

because Satan is not some mythical

creature in a red suit with devil horns

and a pitchfork.

He is a real powerful

strong angelic being who hates God and

wants to steal worship from him. And

once you have been saved and secured by

the blood of Christ, he knows that he

can't steal your soul and steal your

worship. So he'll do everything to

destroy your life and render you useless

before God. So he hurls attack after

attack on you. And he puts temptations

and stumbling blocks in front of you

because as Peter will say in chapter 5,

he is like a roaring lion walking about

seeking whom he may devour. He's your

enemy.

He wants to discourage you and destroy

you.

We all go through what Peter calls here

manifold temptations.

And the more this world grows hostile

toward us, the less it feels like home.

But in spite of all this,

you can have sustained joy because you

have a secured hope

in a world where none of these trials

are present because of your love for and

your faith in Jesus Christ. That's what

he says in verse eight. Whom Jesus

Christ whom having not seen ye love.

in whom though ye see him not yet

believing.

See, the amazing thing for us 2,000

years later is the fact that you can so

deeply love someone you've never seen.

How does that happen? The spirit of God

that is in you, bearing witness that you

are God's because of Jesus Christ.

Though you've never seen him, you still

believe in him. And it's because of your

love for Jesus and your faith in Jesus

that he says, "Ye rejoice with joy

unspeakable and full of glory

that even in the midst of suffering, you

can rejoice in such a way that that joy

is inexpressable.

It goes beyond human words. It goes

beyond the kind of joy that people have

seen when you're laid up in a hospital

bed and your body seems to be utterly

failing because of cancer. And yet the

doctors and nurses come in and they see

a smile on your face and joy in your

heart that they've never seen before in

hundreds of cancer patients. Friends,

that is the love and faith in the Lord

Jesus Christ that brings forth joy that

is unspeakable and full of glory and

praise.

Why do we have this joy unspeakable

full of glory? In verse nine, receiving

the end of your faith, even the

salvation of your souls.

Your faith

is going somewhere.

It's leading you somewhere.

And that is the eternal salvation of

your soul. Do you see this? It all keeps

pointing back to the living hope that we

have by the resurrection of Jesus Christ

from the dead. Because according to

God's abundant mercy, he has borne us

again under this living hope by the

sprinkling of the blood of Christ and

the sanctification of the Holy Spirit

that we have become his people.

This is our living hope.

Because the resurrection

secures our hope, it sustains our joy in

today's trials.

We all face seasons of suffering. And if

we're all honest, we don't always face

them like these believers did.

with great rejoicing,

with a

true faith,

with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

No, the sufferings that we go through in

life have a way of weighing us down,

oppressing us, discouraging us, stealing

our joy, and sometimes diminishing our

faith.

But even these believers

struggled through their suffering.

Otherwise, why would Peter even write

this?

Why would he need to say though now for

a short season

you are in heaviness

because of manifold temptations.

See Peter acknowledges

that the temptations, the trials, the

testings we face in life will weigh us

down to mental, emotional and spiritual

lows. But what Peter gives us is a

glorious hope that can pull us out,

that can purify our faith and restore

and sustain our joy.

What does he do in this text?

He reminds us who we are.

Chosen

though not belonging.

Precious

though exiled,

loved

though hated

by God. We are the recipients

of the mercy

in abundance from God. We have been set

apart

by the Holy Spirit.

We have been sprinkled clean from every

sin by the blood of Jesus Christ. He has

called you believer his people, precious

and chosen.

He has begotten us again

to a whole new nature

with a living hope by the resurrection

of Jesus Christ from the dead. And he

has begotten us to this eternal

inheritance that is incorruptible,

undefiled, and never fades. He has

reserved it for you in heaven. He keeps

you by his divine power until the day of

salvation comes. Friends, we have reason

to rejoice. It is the li living hope

that Jesus Christ has brought us to

through his resurrection that can pull

us out of the misery and heaviness of

our testings and trials and sustain our

joy to rejoice even in the midst of

suffering until the day that Jesus

Christ returns and we receive the end of

our faith, the salvation of our souls.

Folks, that hope is coming.

So when we are low,

we need to remember who we are and we

need to remember what is coming.

And when we remember

who we are and what we have in Christ,

it can put all of your sufferings in the

right perspective.

That they are temporary.

That one day they will end. that they

have no power to destroy your faith.

They have no power to steal your hope.

All they can do is purify your faith so

that when Christ returns, he is honored

and praised and glorified through your

faith in the midst of hard trials.

So I want to encourage you, praise God

and greatly rejoice with joy unspeakable

and full of glory because of who you are

and what you have in Jesus Christ.

That's the hope of his resurrection.

But let me finish where we began.

This check

can only be cashed if it belongs to you.

So can I ask you, is your name written

on it?

Have you trusted Jesus Christ as your

savior?

Have you been chosen, sanctified, and

cleansed through faith in Jesus?

If not, suffering really has no purpose

for you.

You have no hope. It has no end. The

resurrection means nothing for you so

long as you do not believe.

But if you will believe today that Jesus

died for your sin and rose again,

everything that we have spoken about can

be a check placed in your hand with your

name on it. That seat in God's heavenly

kingdom can be reserved for you. It can

be secured by God's divine power. And

you can receive a joy unspeakable and

full of glory in the midst of great

suffering. All of it can be yours if

you'll trust in Jesus Christ.

Secured hope and sustained joy can be

yours if you believe. Let's pray. Our

heavenly father, thank you

for calling us your people,

for cleansing us by the blood of Jesus,

sanctifying us by the gift of your

spirit,

and by giving us this eternal

inheritance.

May it stir the believer's heart in

times of great suffering

to rejoice and give you praise because

of what you've given us. I pray for

those who don't know Jesus as their

savior.

That they would believe on him.

That their name might be written on the

envelope. That they can cash the check

of the hope we have in Jesus Christ. May

your spirit bring great conviction to

our souls and deep assurance of who we

are and what we have in Jesus. It's in

his glorious name I pray. Amen.