Hope that Lasts a Lifetime

Greeting/Overview

Greeting

Good Morning, Everyone. It’s so good to be with you today and to see so many familiar faces. I’m very grateful for this opportunity to be here, and for the opportunity to encourage all of you in Christ Jesus.

For those of you who might not know me, I spent the first 32 years of my life here in Wabash County before moving out to Phoenix, Arizona about 6 years ago. During my time out there, I spent about 5 years as an Assistant Pastor of a local church family. And then my favorite part about being out there was meeting and marrying my best friend, Kaylee, who is here with us today as well.

Kaylee and I moved back here to the area just a few months ago, and it’s been great to be back with my family. On top of that, shortly after moving back, we received the exciting news that we are expecting our first child! Needless to say we’re pretty thrilled about that, and thrilled to meet this little one sometime in November, Lord-Willing.

Well again, it’s such a privilege for us to be with you today. Thanks for having us here, and for giving me the opportunity to encourage you from the Word of God this morning.

My message for us today is entitled “Hope that Lasts a Lifetime,” as we take a look at 1 Peter 1:1-9. So if you happen to have a copy of the Scriptures with you, I invite you to go ahead and make your way there so that we can be ready to jump in together here in just a moment. I believe we’ll also have this passage up on the screen today if you’d like to follow along that way…and just so that you’re aware, I’ll be working from the ESV translation today.

Overview

Well as you’re making your way to 1 Peter 1, I’d like to just set the stage for us a little bit, and also give you a brief overview of my game plan for us this morning.

When we “parachute down” into a particular passage like this, it’s important that we start out by getting our bearings a little bit. We find 1 Peter situated within the back half of the New Testament. This is 1 of 2 of Peter’s epistles, or letters to fellow believers, that we find in Scripture. It’s believed that he likely wrote this letter from the City of Rome in the Mid-60’s AD, which would have been about 30 years after Jesus had completed his ministry on earth. By this time, as the Roman Empire was dominating the scene, the Good News of Salvation in Jesus Christ was spreading into various Gentile, or non-Jewish, nations. Bittersweetly, yet under the Sovereignty of God, one of the biggest contributing factors for this spread of the Gospel was due to the scattering of Christians brought about by the persecution of the Church. As we’ll see in this particular passage, Peter wrote this letter to fellow suffering Christians who were scattered throughout parts of Asia Minor, which would be our Modern-Day Turkey.

This morning, it’s also important for us not to lose sight of who Peter was, and of the powerful authority & perspective with which he wrote this letter. He was 1 of the 12 Apostles, called by Jesus Christ Himself, to be a rock and leader of the Early Church, and along with the other Apostles, to be an ambassador and spokesman on behalf of the Lord. He was a fisherman-turned-disciple who had the incredible opportunity to walk alongside God Incarnate Himself…to witness Christ’s ministry & miracles…to see Him transfigured on the Mt. of Olives...to experience the shame & the heartache of denying Christ & seeing him crucified…to then see the tomb empty & Christ resurrected from the dead…and then ultimately to be forgiven, restored, & commissioned by Christ for Gospel Ministry.

As Peter carried out the Great Commission during the remainder of his life, trials & hardship were not a foreign thing to him. He not only witnessed brothers & sisters in Christ being persecuted, scattered, and martyred for their faith, but he himself was beaten and arrested multiple times on account of Christ. And then ultimately, just as Jesus prophesied would happen to him, just several years after writing this very letter, Peter himself was martyred for his faith.

Friends, as we walk through these 9 verses this morning, I hope that remembering all this about Peter will help us grasp why Peter was more than qualified to be able to speak encouragement and hope into fellow suffering believers of his day…and why his words—which are ultimately God’s Words—still ring true for us today as we all face our own unique suffering and trials.

My plan for us this morning is for us to first read the passage together. And since I’ve already laid a bit of the contextual ground work that we find in Peter’s greeting, I’ll just briefly share some additional comments on the first 2 verses. After that, we’ll shift our focus toward verses 3-9 where we’ll camp out as I share and expound upon 3 main points. And then finally, I’ll close by providing a few brief words of exhortation for us. Sound good?

Passage Reading & Prayer

Alright, well together let’s all set our eyes on 1 Peter 1:1-9. I invite you to follow along with me as I read this passage for us. This is the Word of God:

1 Peter 1:1–9 (ESV)

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

3 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, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 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. 8 Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Amen. Would you please join me in prayer as we thank God for His Word?

Comment on Peter’s Greeting (v1-2)

Kicking this passage off in the first 2 verses, we see Peter identify and greet his recipients. As it clearly shows us in verse 1, and as I mentioned earlier, he was writing to fellow believers who had been scattered throughout different provinces & regions of Asia Minor.

In verse 2, Peter basically goes on to share 2 initial things with these scattered believers. First, he explains, in part, how their status as fellow ‘elect’ believers plays out: he explains that these believers have been chosen by God the Father and set apart (sanctified) by the work of the Holy Spirit…which is ultimately designed to lead to a life of gospel obedience to Jesus Christ & continued cleansing by His shed blood. So here within his greeting, Peter gives a very intimate “Triune” picture of God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son’s involvement in their status as believers. In part, this “Godhead” kind of language is something that we’ll be able to see from Peter later in this passage.

The second thing that Peter shares in verse 2 is actually his overarching prayer & desire for these fellow scattered believers, which is this: that in the midst of their trial and suffering, that God’s grace and peace would be multiplied to them. What a great little glimpse we get into Peter’s heart here…to see what he desires & prayers for the Lord to accomplish through this letter.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ here today, just like these fellow believers of Peter’s day, each and every one of us face our own unique trials & suffering throughout life in this fallen world. I know that you as a church family specifically, have been (and I’m sure still are) navigating a very difficult season full of suffering & trial. What you need…what we all need throughout this life, is for God’s grace & peace to be continually multiplied to us.

I’d like for us to now shift our attention to the last 7 verses of this passage, where by His Word, God will empathically show us, through the writings of Peter, just how & why His grace and peace can be multiplied to us amid the trials of life…just how and why we can have hope that lasts for a lifetime. I’ll share & expound upon 3 points that I believe would be good for us all to remember…and like the Apostle Peter, my desire & my prayer is that God’s grace & peace would be multiplied to each one of us as we leave these doors today.

Share & Expound Main Points (v3-9)

1. Through Jesus Christ, our Merciful Father Has Brought our Hope from Death to Life

That being said, point one is this: Through Jesus Christ, our Merciful Father has Brought our Hope from Death to Life.

Verse 3 says this:

1 Peter 1:3 ESV

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,

We see very clearly from this verse that in order for one to have living hope, one must first be “born again.” No 2nd birth? No living hope.

Have you ever thought about the concept of hope itself? This week, I came across an online definition that was helpful in thinking about this on a deeper level personally. It read this: “Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes.”

As some of you know, I come from a family of farmers. I’ve enjoyed being back in the area and helping out on the farm a bit...but one thing that I don’t particularly enjoy doing is loading pigs out at 4:00 o’clock in the morning. Yesterday was one of those mornings…and just as were were getting ready to start loading pigs, one of the other workers said something along these lines: “You know, I’m actually in a decent mood this morning…I’m just thinking about laying my head back down on my pillow again in a few hours.”

Hope. We all have certain things that we hope for and things that we put our hope in…certain things that we optimistically expect to positively occur in the future. It can be as simple as a pillow and a future nap. But maybe it’s more than that. Maybe it’s getting a new job…maybe it’s having children...maybe it’s living a long, healthy life...maybe it’s being able to enjoy many more years of a happy marriage or many more years of healthy children & grandchildren. We all hope for certain things on this earth, and these various “hopes” that we hold onto can seem to have a way of fueling optimism and helping us through difficult times.

But here’s the reality: in this sin-cursed world that we live in, in one way or another, whether these earth-bound hopes are ever realized for us or not, all of these earth-bound hopes are ultimately unstable & will one day fade. Sometimes we don’t get that new job. Sometimes we do get it, but the grass doesn’t turn out to be greener after all. Sometimes spouses leave & marriages unexpectedly end. Sometimes wombs remain barren. Sometimes children die at a young age. Ultimately the hope of our own physical lives fade because, unless Christ returns first, physical death awaits every single one of us. All this being said…if we know that all of our earth-bound hopes ultimately fade, what is truly & lastingly left for us to hope in?

As fallen human beings who are so prone to sin & transgress against our Holy Creator, we must remember that we are not entitled to any ounce of blessing or any ounce of hope. The Apostle Paul tells us that the wages of our sin…what we truly are entitled to, is not hope, but despair! Not life, but death! Not reward, but punishment! We need to be able to grasp the incredible mercy of God. One way to do this is to remember this sober reality: God could have left all of us dead in our sin & left to walk through this life without any ounce of lasting hope. And you know what? He would have been perfectly just in doing so.

But Praise God this is not the case! Praise God this is not what He has chosen to do. Freely out of His great mercy, our Heavenly Father decided not to leave us dead in sin and despair…not to leave us without hope. Out of His Sovereign Grace, He freely chose to send His Son to accomplish the work necessary in order to effectively save sinners like us by bringing about our 2nd birth…a 2nd birth which comes by faith in Jesus Christ…a faith that is directly tied to living & lasting hope.

Thanks be to our gracious and merciful Father.

2. Amid the Trials of this Life, God Will Continue to Keep our Faith-Filled Hope Alive

A 2nd point from this passage that we would do well to remember is this: Amid the Trials of this Life, God will continue to Keep our Faith-Filled Hope Alive.

It’s so important for us to remember that our hope in Christ is safe and secure. God’s Word leaves us confident of this in verses 4-7. Peter, after saying that God has caused us to be born again to a living hope, goes on to say that we hope for, verse 4,...

1 Peter 1:4–7 (ESV)

…4 an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 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.

Brothers & Sisters, so long as we keep persevering in faith, trusting Christ alone for our forgiveness, our righteousness, & our salvation, we can have great confidence knowing that our hope of one-day receiving an eternal inheritance will be realized. We can have this confidence, not because of anything within us other than a faith that looks outside of ourselves and unto a Faithful God who always keeps His promises. From the very moment of our 2nd Birth, when we are first brought to faith in Jesus Christ, all the way through the rest of our days on this earth, our living hope can remain alive...and it can serve as an anchor to our souls because it is protected by the Power of God Himself. The Apostle Paul affirms this by telling us that when we heard the word of truth, the Gospel of our salvation, and believed in Christ, that we were sealed with the Promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance.

This is so important for us to know and remember throughout this life. Because as you and I both know: just because we become Christians one day, that doesn’t mean that all-of-the-sudden this life gets easier. Sometimes it can be just the opposite of that…take the experience of Peter himself, for example, and the fellow believers of his day.

Life on this earth can be hard, and it can be painful. There are so many storms that can come our way throughout this pilgrimage as believers in this fallen world. But here’s the good news: if we have been united to Christ by faith, we can trust that God does not waste our trials nor does He seek to punish us by means of our trials. It doesn’t matter whether a certain trial in our life is inflicted upon us by an unforeseen tragedy, whether it’s inflicted upon us by someone else, or whether we inflict it upon ourselves! Now obviously, if we’re going to suffer in this life, may it be as a result of the good that we do in Christ’s name, rather than because of our sin…which Peter actually addresses later in chapter 2 of this letter. But regardless, every one of our trials, no matter how they take shape, ultimately falls underneath the Sovereignty of a good and gracious Heavenly Father who has adopted us into His Family & who has a good design for our trials.

I’ve recently been reading a book entitled “The Crook in the Lot,” written by an old 18th Century Scottish Preacher named Thomas Boston. And here’s what he had to say about the trials in our lives, or as he calls it, the “crooks in our lots”:

“Whatever the crook in your lot, it is of God’s making, and therefore, you may look upon it kindly. Since it is your Father who has made it for you, do not doubt there there is a favorable design in it.”

Friends, this is exactly what Peter encourages us with in this passage. Using the various trials in our lives that He has sovereignly ordained, here is our Heavenly Father’s design: it is to take something of ours that He sees as very precious: our faith in Christ—faith that is tied to our hope…faith that is more precious than gold—and He tests it & refines it using each trial…so that our faith will continue to mature along this broken road…so that the flame of our living hope will continue to burn...and so that when it’s all said and done, our faith will have stood the entire test of time and the trials along the way, and we’re found praising our Lord.

The Apostles James alludes to this very same thing in his own epistle, even calling on us to rejoice in our trials. He wrote this in James 1:2-4:

James 1:2–4 (ESV)

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

On the contrary...Satan, this world, our own sinful flesh that still clings to us…all these forces have just the opposite design and desire when it comes to the trials of our life. That’s why we see so many people seemingly “leave the faith.” Their “faith” gets tested in the fire...choked up by the thorns of this life...and it’s ultimately found to be counterfeit faith. Its true colors of hard-heartedness, pride, and unrepentance are revealed.

Friends, real, genuine faith is faith that begins and ends in Christ alone. It’s a faith that is continually tested and refined by God amid the trials of this life. Its true colors are a tender heart, humility, and continual repentance before others and before a merciful Father.

On this difficult, broken road of life…throughout each of our unique, crook-filled lots...may the Lord give us grace and power by His Spirit to keep the faith & cling to hope. And may we take comfort knowing that as we persevere, He will continue to preserve us. He will keep us in the faith…He protect our eternal inheritance…He will keep our hope alive...He will continue the good work that He started in us until He ultimately brings that good work to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

3. We Can Rejoice Today Because One Day, God Will Turn Our Living Hope into Living Reality

It is to this “day of Jesus Christ” that I’d like for us to now shift with my 3rd and final point. It is this: We Can Rejoice Today Because One Day, God Will Turn Our Living Hope into Living Reality.

Peter, after encouraging his fellow scattered & suffering believers amid their trials, goes on to say this in verse 8-9:

1 Peter 1:8–9 ESV

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now 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.

As I just mentioned moments ago, real, genuine faith begins and ends in Christ alone, standing the test of time amid all the various trials to the very end. God assures us in His Word that this persevering, "born again” faith will one day give way to eternal sight, when our souls are ultimately saved and are we in the presence of the Lord.

Brothers and Sisters, this confident, living hope for the future gives us all the more reason in the here-and-now, to rejoice. In a pretty ironic and poetic way, we can rejoice in the hope that we have today, knowing that one day we won’t have to hope anymore. One day, our living hope…it won’t simply just fade away. It will be instantly realized with just one glance at our Living Savior.

Closing Exhortation

Today, amid whatever trials you may be going through as a church family…Amid whatever trials you may be going through personally...

May you continue to keep the faith...May you continue rejoice in hope that lasts for a lifetime…And may God’s grace and peace be multiplied to you in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Would you join me as I pray?

Closing Prayer