Hope.

Introduction

Pray with me please.

If you have a copy of the Scriptures with you this morning, please turn with me to 1 Peter 1:3-9 (READ).

In our text today, we join a group of believers that have scattered around Ancient Rome, because one of the first Empire wide persecutions of Christians had recently begun. A mad man by the name of Caesar Nero started persecuting them because he needed a “fall-guy” for the burning down of the city of Rome.

Being the center of the life of Ancient Rome, the Romans were grieved by their city being burned.

They knew that Nero had a lust for building in his own honor, so they began to blame him.

From AD 64-68, then, the Christians were persecuted.

It was this persecution that would eventually claim the lives of the Apostles Paul and Peter.

This suffering and affliction was the theme of Peter’s letter.

being slandered: 1 Peter 2:12. At one point, Christians were being slandered by outsiders as they said Christians were having orgies at the “love feasts”.

Being reviled: 1 Peter 3:9.

Peter later, encouraged them to suffer as Christians, rather than as criminals. Whats more, he told them to not be surprised at the suffering. 1 Peter 4:12-16.

Jesus says similarly in John 16:33.

1 Peter 2:21 “For to this you have been called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps,”

We see that Jesus is the model of the way in which Christians are to suffer.

John 15:18-21 ““If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”

In our text today (back in 1 Peter 1:6), we see that Peter wished to encourage the Exiles Christians as they face “various” trials.

“various” literally means “many colored”. It truly has any type of suffering or affliction in mind here.

The same word James uses in James 1:2 “Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials,”

Interestingly Peter uses it to describe the various ways God displays His grace to His church by the ways that He gifts the individual members on in 1 Peter 4:10 “As each one has received a gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God—”

It is no secret that we have been going through a difficult time as a local body of believers recently. I’m not just talking about Gavriella, and all of the craziness that we’ve been dealing with the last month or so. There have been sicknesses, cancers, deaths, job changes, family strife, and much more I am sure that may not actually be shared.

A lot of times these come in waves, with more than one at a time.

Like we’re drinking from a fire hydrant that won’t let up.

On top of that, we all feel the cultural tidal wave of pressure.

Pressure to cave on our conviction and abdicate our responsibility to the truth.

In our homes.

With our family.

At our jobs.

Not to mention society at large.

This pressure comes with a threat of being “cancelled,” culturally ostracized, and fired.

In all of the difficulty, in all of the pain, where do we go to find hope?

Where do we find relief in the trials?

Where do we find help?

In our passage this morning, we are going to see that the Gospel provides with all the hope that we need.

In verses 3-5, we will see that the Gospel provides us Hope in the future because of our guaranteed inheritance.

In verses 6-7, we will see that the Gospel provides us Hope in the furnace of great affliction by giving them purpose.

In verses 8-9, we will see that the Gospel provides us Hope presently because we love Jesus Christ.

Hope in the future (vv. 3-5).

As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have a confident expectation of the life to come, because God has shown us mercy on the Cross.

We see Peter begin with a song about the Lord’s provision of salvation. It is strikingly similar to Paul in Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Each of these Apostles begin their discussion about salvation by first blessing God.

Peter moves quickly through several important doctrines to land on an incorruptible inheritance in verse 4. :

God’s mercy.

God’s mercy is different than God’s grace.

When we think of God’s grace, we recognize that God has given us something that we do not deserve.

Often when we think of God’s mercy, we think of how God has not given us something that we DO deserve, like His wrath for our sin.

Here, Peter explains that God, according to His mercy, caused us to be born again.

This means that He considered our poor estate (lost in sin, and completely unable to do anything about it) as was moved with compassion to cause us to be born again.

similar in concept to what has historically been called “mercy ministry” in the Christian Church.

Being born again.

This is the doctrine of regeneration. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are made new. Those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation, have been given a new heart, a new nature.

Titus 3:5 “He saved us, not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,”

2 Corinthians 5:16-17.

Ephesians 2:1-5.

Something important about it in this context is that the implication of being born again is that we are no longer a part of the “sons of disobedience,” but now we are a part of the family of God.

We once were orphans, but now we have been adopted into the family of God, where we are now co-heirs of the kingdom WITH Christ.

Romans 8:15-17.

God mercifully considered our poor estate, as orphans and captives in the old nature, and gave us a new heart and an inheritance.

A living hope.

Hope in the Bible is

The resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Our inheritance is kept in heaven for us.

incorruptible

Not subject to decay.

undefiled

Unstained by sin.

unfading

Never losing its beauty.

This “inheritance” seems to be a O.T. allusion to the inheritance that Israelites were to receive in Promised Land. Unlike the physical inheritance they received, this inheritance doesn’t decay, lose its beauty, or subject to consequence of sin.

(consider for a moment how temporary the inheritance we receive from our long lost uncle).

We are protected by God, through faith, for our final salvation (v. 5).

Our salvation has three parts to it.

Justification

Being declared not guilty and righteous, by God.

We were saved from the penalty of sin.

Sanctification

This is the continual daily grind off putting of sin by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Where we are being saved from the power of sin.

Colossians 3:5-10.

Glorification

this is what is in view here. This is where we are saved from the presence of sin. This the full consummation of our salvation, where we are finally free of sin’s presence, and completely made new.

This is the importance of the resurrection as well, because we will receive resurrection bodies in the likeness of the Lord’s resurrection body.

We have hope, because God Himself has shown us great mercy, by causing us to be born again, into His family, guaranteeing our future inheritance

Hope in the furnace of affliction (vv. 6-7).

In this you greatly rejoice

What do we greatly rejoice in? Is it that our faith is protected by God, through faith, or is it that, as we’ll see our faith is purified, strengthened, and proven genuine?

It seems to be both.

v. 7, “praise glory and honor”

1 Corinthians 4:5.

“Well done good and faithful servant.”

For a little while

Trials are only momentary (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

“They only last a lifetime.” Pastor Mike Riccardi.

If necessary

according to God’s sovereign purpose. Peter says therefore that Christians will experience grief only as it is necessary in the light of God’s great and infinitely wise purposes for them.

The proving furnace.

To see if your faith is real.

To purify your faith

To strengthen your faith.

Our trials and afflictions are no longer meaningless. God is working something in us. 2 Corinthians 4:17. To the degree that we suffer affliction in the path of obedience to our Lord, there produced for us a weight of glory beyond all comparison.

In a sense, the more we suffer here, the more that eternity is going to be enjoyable…We see similarly in 1 Peter 4:13.

Hope because we love Jesus (vv. 8-9).

Each of these phrases are in the present tense. We can experience the joy of our final salvation (glorification) now, because we love Jesus and increasingly so!

I don’t want to get to lost in the grammar here, the words “believe in” and “you rejoice” are both present active participles, meaning that they could both be translated “continually believing in” and “continually rejoicing”.

“Believe in” even means “continually giving yourself to” or “continually resting in”.