The Most Privileged People in History

Get one, you maybe raise your hand and Osher can uh give you uh an outline.

That's very helpful.

Thank you.

Place to take notes, you can doodle, anything to give me the impression that you're paying attention.

That would be uh very helpful.

I just want to say thank you for your faithful support through uh I would say years, but I have to say decades.

Um I was uh in Sunday school beforehand, and Nicole so kindly mentioned to me that uh do you know that I'm a grandma now?

And she showed me the picture of her little grandchild.

But she was my you know in the in the youth group that I ministered to.

So, okay, I get it.

I'm 63.

I know I look about 80, but um I'm 63.

Someone said to me on the way in that you look really good.

Um thank you.

Um he's confessing right now.

Uh so uh no, but it's very nice to be here, and you have faithfully um been encouraging, supportive.

I get uh nice notes, and um Jim has been a tremendous friend through the years.

Um I'm I'm not gonna tell any stories.

I have some stories.

If you if you a little bit of money afterwards, I could uh I'm sure I could share some stories.

Um but uh it's very nice to be here.

On April 5th, 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he's a Lutheran pastor, was arrested and imprisoned by the German Gestapo for his political activities directed against the Nazi regime.

He had been part of an underground resistance movement, and eventually his words and his activities caught up with him.

Two years after his arrest, he was facing execution.

The day before his sentence was carried out, it was a Sunday, Bonhoeffer led a brief church service in the prison which housed men from various nationalities.

One particular prisoner, an English army officer who was also facing the death penalty, but was later let free, he wrote these words describing the very last day of Bonhoeffer's life.

Bonhoeffer always seemed to spread an atmosphere of happiness and joy over the least incident, a profound gratitude for the mere fact that he was alive.

He was one of the very few persons I have ever met for whom God was real and always near.

On Sunday, April 8th, 1945, Pastor Bonhoeffer conducted a little service of worship and spoke to us in a way that went to the heart of us all.

He found just the right words to express the spirit of our imprisonment.

He'd hardly ended his last prayer when the door opened and two civilians entered.

They said, Prisoner Bonhoeffer, come with us.

That had only one meaning for all the prisoners: the gallows.

We said goodbye to him.

He took me aside and said, This is the end, but for me, it's the beginning of life.

The next day he was hanged in Flossenburg.

This is the end, but for me, it's the beginning of life.

What could so possess Bonhoeffer that at the very moment of his execution he could say such a thing?

What was the nature of his hope that not even hanging by his neck from the gallows could extinguish it?

Well, I'll tell you, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's hope was a living hope.

It's placed in a living Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that living hope is the theme of Peter's first epistle that he wrote to the churches that were scattered all throughout Asia Minor.

So if you have your Bibles, I'd like to invite you to turn to 1 Peter, and we're going to look particularly at verses 3 to 12.

I know it's a large passage of scripture.

Um, they're in the first chapter of Peter's first letter to the churches scattered throughout Asia Minor.

Before we begin, though, let's uh bow for a word of prayer.

Let's pray together.

Father, we we thank you for the opportunity we have to hear from you.

And we ask that your spirit would be at work in all of our lives, that you would take your word and minister to us as we each have need.

And I pray, Father, we would leave here encouraged, that we would be able to grab onto that living hope and fix our gaze on the Lord Jesus as we go about our lives uh here and now.

It's through Jesus we pray.

Amen.

1 Peter chapter 1, beginning in verse 3.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

These have come so that your faith, of greater worth than gold, which is perishes, even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Though you have not seen him, you love him.

And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him, and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of this grace that was to come to you searched intently and with greatest care, trying to find out the time and the circumstance to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

Even angels longed to look into those things.

Let me just give a little bit of context to 1 Peter, and I even want to touch upon the first couple of verses just to guide us as we look at this passage beginning in verse 3.

Peter was written in 64 AD, just prior to 64 AD, and that's the year that widespread state-sponsored persecution broke out all over the Roman Empire.

In the summer of that year, Nero, who was the emperor, he burned Rome, and Christians served as the perfect scapegoat.

To divert attention from himself, he put all the blame on the Christians.

Tragically, Christians quickly and conveniently became the objects of reproach.

They were arrested, imprisoned, they were tried and convicted very quickly, and they were deemed to be enemies of the state.

They were burned at the stake, they were fed to the lions.

They were thrown into the Colosseum and torn apart by wild animals wide for sport and entertainment.

Many were set afire by being fastened to the top of poles, and they served as human torches in the night to light up the night sky.

These were some very difficult days for those who chose to follow Christ.

The Apostle Peter sought to encourage his suffering brothers and sisters, and he wasted little ink in doing so.

You'll see in the opening verses of chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, Peter emphasized two very important truths that were meant to provide joy and comfort and strength in the midst of pain.

The first truth had to do with the Christian's true relationship with this world.

You and I are strangers.

We're aliens.

We are sojourners on a pilgrimage.

Okay?

This world is not our home.

Our true citizenship, our true home isn't here, it's in heaven.

And the world that we we now live in, and all of its evil one day is going to be completely extinguished.

We're just passing through.

We are en route to a city whose builder and architect is God.

Peter mentioned not only our true relationship to this world, but he also talks about the special relationship we have with God in heaven.

We may be aliens to this world, but to God, you see here in verse 1, we're his elect, we're his chosen ones, his chosen people.

It really doesn't matter what the world thinks of us, because there's only one opinion that counts: God's opinion.

We shouldn't seek our identity and our significance through the things that this world offers: status, power, money, those sorts of things, fame.

Our significance is tied to this special relationship we have with the creator of the universe.

We are his people, his chosen people.

That sets the stage for Peter now elaborating on this special relationship that we have with God that has begun now and will go on for all eternity.

There are three things that can be noted about our salvation.

Three things that we can expect to flow, and I would say practically flow out of the fact that we've experienced this salvation from the Lord Jesus.

The first is found in verse 3 Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in his great mercy, he has given us new birth.

In other words, through faith in Christ, we have been born again.

I confess I used to shy away from using that term, born again, because I saw it used in so many contexts where, you know, they were kind of religious extremists, and you know, it sounded kind of funny to talk about being born again.

And so I shied away from using that term, but I don't anymore.

Because it's a beautiful expression, a beautiful description of what takes place spiritually when we experience the salvation that Jesus offers.

Born again simply means a fresh start.

And that's if you're going to take notes, that's your first point there.

That's what it means.

The first thing that practically flows from our salvation is that we are blessed with a fresh start.

Have you ever been halfway through a home renovation project?

Maybe you're outside, you're doing some landscaping makeover.

Maybe you've been halfway through a business venture, and the thought crosses your mind, I wish I could start all over again.

Erase the blackboard and just start from scratch.

Have you ever been halfway through a life and thought to yourself, I wish I could start over again?

Well, I have good news for you.

God gives to sinners that opportunity.

It's called being born again.

It's a fresh start.

It's not just turning over a new leaf.

Uh no, it's a new life.

When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, God actually blesses us with a new beginning.

The old things pass away.

You know, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, uh verse 17.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old things pass away.

Behold, all things become new.

The fullest discussion of our new birth is found in the Gospel of John, John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

Uh, you know the story.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night.

I'm sure he was intrigued by the things that Jesus was teaching.

He'd heard of his miracles.

Maybe he even saw some of his miracles.

So Nicodemus, under the cover of darkness, he comes to see Jesus.

And at the very onset of their conversation, I mean, he doesn't, you know, hi Nicodemus, how are you?

Tell me a little bit about your ministry, your life.

No, not Jesus, he gets right uh to the heart of the matter.

He says, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he's born again.

No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he's born of the water and the spirit.

Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit.

Two aspects of this new birth mentioned here by Jesus in John 3 born of the water, born of the spirit.

What do those two descriptions refer to?

Well, some Christians try to read Christian baptism into the phrase born of water, but no, that's not it.

Uh especially when you're thinking about the context.

He's talking to Nicodemus here, and he's upset that Nicodemus doesn't understand what he's talking about.

So it must have been something revealed where God was going to bring about this new birth in the Old Testament.

And actually there is in the book of Ezekiel.

That would explain why Jesus was frustrated with Nicodemus, the teacher of the law, because the prophet Ezekiel spoke of a future day when new life was going to be infused into the people of God.

Ezekiel 36.

This is what the sovereign Lord says I will sprinkle sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean.

I will cleanse you from all your impurities.

There's the first aspect, born of water, referring to God's cleansing us from our sin.

And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit in you.

I will remove from you the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit in you.

Second aspect of this new birth, born of the Spirit.

It refers to the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God.

Well, what's the basis of this new birth?

Notice again, verse 3 God's boundless mercy.

We must never, ever lose sight of the fact that our salvation, this special relationship we have with God, is taught according to our performance.

It has nothing to do with us.

We didn't earn it, we didn't deserve it.

Um we could never ever be perfect enough.

We could never live the life to deserve this relationship.

Were it not for the mercy and grace of God, you and I would be, as Ephesians says, dead in our trespasses and sin.

But God, who is rich in mercy, entered the situation.

Second thing that practically flows out of our salvation experience, it's found in verses four and five.

In this great mercy, he has given us new birth into this living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.

Kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power into the coming of salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Second point of your online is this our fresh start inspires a future hope.

This fresh start that we have on life, it should inspire you to realize there's a future, a wonderful future.

In fact, that last song we sang before uh in worship talked about this future hope that we have.

Hope is one of those commodities that uh comes and goes.

In fact, you look across the landscape of the U.S.

right now and you see, you know, these crazy protests and riots and and uh the fraud that's going on with all the taxes, and it can be very depressing.

You know, we're always under the the threat of terrorism or some sort of disease breaking out and shutting down our society again.

Uh we we have no reason to be hopeful at times when you look across uh today's landscape.

But I would say not so for the Christian, because our hope is future.

Our hope is untouched by the evil of this world.

Uh our hope is untouched by the chaotic chaotic conditions that that we encounter day to day.

Regardless of what happens this week, regardless of what happens this month, regardless of what happens this year, no.

Our future hope, Peter says, it's guaranteed by the power of God.

What exactly is our living future hope?

Well, I think he defines it for us in verse 4.

Our future hope is an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.

As adopted children of God, we have an inheritance, and it's being reserved for us right now in heaven, and we're going to experience that inheritance one day.

But now you might ask, what's our inheritance?

Okay, give me something more to grab onto.

Well, in the Old Testament, the Old Testament, uh uh the Israelites in the Old Testament, they had an inheritance.

They were looking forward to the promised land.

Theirs was a physical plot of land that they were gonna one day God was gonna bring them into and enjoy.

But we're not in the old covenant, we're in the new covenant.

So, what's our inheritance?

What's our promised land?

I think it takes on a spiritual dimension, and I think it's best defined by the phrase eternal life.

Now, at first that might seem a little bit odd, but I think when you understand eternal life not only as something that relates to time, uh then it begins to become clear.

We think of eternal life as, well, life's gonna go on forever and ever and ever.

That's that's eternal life, and that's certainly a part of it, but it doesn't give us the complete picture.

Eternal life is not just the quantity of life, it's also the quality of life, uh, the kind of life that we're going to experience in the presence of God, in the family of God.

For all eternity, all who are born of God are gonna have the privilege of enjoying a connection with God that's just indescribable.

Human language cannot express the depths of the intimacy that we're going to enjoy day in and day out for all eternity with the creator of the universe.

That's our inheritance.

And this eternal life that we enter into, Peter says, it's secure.

He says it's guaranteed.

Um, no one can take it away, no one can snatch us out of the Father's hand, Jesus said.

Some of you might be wondering, well, does that mean you believe in eternal security?

Well, um, I like to phrase it more on the line of not just eternal security, but the perseverance of the saints, because he even mentions both things here in verse five.

Our eternal life is shielded and protected by God's power as well as our faith.

They're somehow working in conjunction with each other.

In other words, true saints are gonna persevere in their faith.

If you come across a person who all of a sudden in life just jettisons their faith, they apostasize, they don't want anything to do with God, they don't have anything with Jesus.

I would take you to 1 John 2.19.

You can just jot that down and look it up later.

But these are people who went out from among the disciples, and John says, because they weren't really of us.

For if they really truly were of us, if their salvation was genuine, they would have stayed with us.

So there's the perseverance of the saints, the guarantee we have as we continue through our lives with our eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus.

God will protect us, God will secure us.

It's guaranteed.

Flowing out of our salvation experience, we've been blessed with a fresh start, and I think that fresh start inspires a future hope.

Thirdly, and finally, our future hope inspires a faithful walk.

Again, very practical.

Verses six to nine.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief and all kinds of trials, these have come so that your faith, greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Though you have not seen him, you love him.

Even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the gold of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Our future hope, as it's described here, is meant to provide us with the necessary strength.

Uh, it's meant to provide us with the necessary motivation to remain true and faithful to Christ.

We know uh we often hear there are two inevitabilities uh in life, death and taxes.

Well, let me throw a third one in there: suffering.

It's inevitable, it's a part of life.

Those who have chosen to follow Jesus Christ, suffering, I would say, is our appointed lot.

I would go so far as to say that we should expect it.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians, he said, For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.

Paul said to Timothy, All who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

It's gonna be there.

So whether we are suffering for righteousness' sake or being persecuted.

For our faith in Christ, while we're in the midst of it, we had better fix our thoughts on our future hope.

We'd better fix our thoughts on our future inheritance.

We'd better fix our thoughts on the fullness of our salvation of what's going to transpire when we're in the presence of God.

One of the best known Christian martyrs in the second century was a man by the name of Polycarp.

He was the bishop over an area that is now in modern-day Turkey.

After the Roman proconsul attempted to persuade him to revile Christ and then be set free, Polycarp replied, Eighty-six years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong.

How then can I blaspheme my Savior and King?

Well, Polycarp was convicted and he was burned at the stake.

He remained faithful and true to Christ because his gaze wasn't set on this world.

His gaze was fixed on the Lord Jesus.

His gaze was fixed on eternity.

What awaited him in the fullness of salvation as it would unfold.

I think it's critical for you and I as believers to have a biblical perspective on suffering.

The first thing that we need to realize is it's only temporary.

Okay, when you put it in light of eternity, it's not going to last forever.

It's temporary.

It may seem like it's going on for a long time, but in light of eternity, it's just a little while.

Second, we must recognize that our suffering is beneficial.

In what way?

Well, verse 7, we discover it's beneficial to proving that our faith is genuine.

That's something.

You're still in there, you're still in the race.

Your faith must be real, must be grounded in truth.

And there are two other passages of scripture that I tell us how suffering is beneficial.

James chapter 1, Romans chapter 5, you can jot those down.

James 1 · chapter mention Romans 5 · chapter mention

You find it's beneficial to our inner character development.

In other words, suffering transforms us internally into the image to become uh bearers of the image of Christ.

Through our suffering, we become more and more like the Lord Jesus.

Now, in verses 10 to 12, Peter had one final thing to say concerning our glorious salvation.

This salvation that we have come to enjoy, the very salvation that the prophets of old were longing to find out about, they never did.

The Old Testament prophets wrote frequently about the coming Messiah.

They wrote frequently about the final redemption and about the final judgment, but they had no idea as to the circumstances that were going to take place to bring all that about.

And no matter how intensely they searched or how how profound they had a vision for the events, they still saw in a very limited way God's masterful plan of salvation.

Peter's point here, I think, is this these Old Testament prophets were part of a very different covenant, the old covenant.

They served a preliminary role leading up to what God was going to institute with the Lord Jesus' death and resurrection.

We as Christians living in the AD area after the death of Christ, we are now able to experience Christ in all of its fullness, God's salvation in all of its fullness.

We've been granted an indescribable privilege of being a part of this new covenant.

And that's why I titled my message, We're the most privileged people in all of history.

We have no idea how privileged we are at this time of history.

I think these three verses here in 1 Peter help to clarify something that Jesus said concerning John the Baptist.

And I remember when I first read this as a young Christian, I scratched my head and I couldn't understand what in the world is he talking about.

You know, John the Baptist, Jesus said, was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets.

He was the appointed messenger leading up to the coming of the Messiah.

And yet Jesus said something very peculiar at one point in the Gospels.

He said, He who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist.

I used to think to myself, are you serious?

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, you know, I don't, my name shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence as those guys.

But Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the Old Testament prophets, including John the Baptist, they were a part of the Old Covenant, which was preparatory to Christ, preparatory to the new covenant.

Jesus referred to John the Baptist as the greatest of Israel's prophets, and he called him a friend of the bridegroom.

Quite a high honor.

But the least saint in the new covenant is greater than that, deserves much greater honor, because those who make up the new covenant are the bride of Christ.

John the Baptist, he was a friend of the bridegroom.

We, as believers, we make up the bride of Christ.

Christians are privileged, unbelievably privileged, and we must never forget it.

Whether we suffer here on earth or not, what we are going to be receiving as a reward is something that uh far uh goes beyond all of our possibility of imagination.

So fortunate are we.

Notice again, verse 12, so magnificent is our privilege, so great is our honor that even the angels, Peter said, they're leaning over the banisters of heaven, trying to get a glimpse of the coming bride.

They want to see uh the bride make her grand appearance.

Angels would have given anything to be part of this glorious salvation.

And that's again why I say we are the most privileged people in all of history.

What the Old Testament's prophet, what the Old Testament prophets prophesied and what they longed for, it's happened.

It's the table's been set, it's in place.

Eternity has burst into history.

The kingdom of God, as Jesus proclaimed, is at hand.

Uh, it is is now expanding.

So whether you are eight years old or eighty years old, you can be a part of it.

You can experience this glorious salvation simply by recognizing Jesus as your Lord and Savior, putting your faith and trust in Him, and you can experience that fresh start, brand new start on life.

You can experience that future hope and be a part of the inheritance that awaits us.

You can come to experience the new life, the quality of life that God wants us all to have.

Let's close with a word of prayer.

Father, we thank you.

Unbelievable privilege to be able to know the Lord Jesus, to have a relationship with you that has begun now and will go on for all eternity.

And I pray if there be anyone here today that has never experienced that new birth, that your spirit would be at work in their heart right now, drawing them to yourself.

I pray, Father, for those of us who have known you, that this would be encouraging for us to keep our gaze fixed on eternity.

This world provides many challenges, all kinds of temptations, all kinds of trials come at us every single day.

And I pray, Father, that we would live in light of eternity and that we would experience the strength that comes from knowing you.

It's through Jesus we pray.

Amen.