1 Peter Bible Study #1: Christians Have a Living Hope

Introduction

One of the recurring themes in the Bible is that those who follow Jesus Christ will in fact suffer. Whether that’s widespread like it was under Roman Emperors like Cladius, Nero, Domitian, and Trajan, or localized like it was for the early Christians in the book of Acts in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas, we see in the first century that to follow Jesus was a costly decision. This was more than a “walk down an aisle in front of everyone and get baptized” type of decision… this was in some cases a death sentence. Here are some current stats concerning the cost of following Jesus around our world each month according to Voice of the Martyrs:

322 Christians are killed for their faith

214 churches are destroyed or damaged

722 forms of violence are commited against Christians (beating, abduction, rape, arrest, etc…)

The reason these people suffer is not because they have wronged another person or stolen from them… it is because they have followed Jesus as Lord and are walking after Him as His disciple. Why would a person willingly choose this type of life?

It wasn’t even an option - to live is Christ, to die is gain. We win either way with Christ!

We have a living hope!

Tonight as we get started with this wonderful letter in 1 Peter, I want to give you all an outline that I hope you were able to get whenever you walked in, if you’re with us online this will hopefully help you out during this study and be a resource that you can flip back to in the livestream after we’re done. Tonight we’ll tackle the first 12 verses of this book and uncover how we as Christians have a Living Hope in Jesus Christ! We’ll look at our salvation story, the security that is found in belonging to Jesus today, and the bright hope He gives us for tomorrow.

1 Peter 1:1–12 CSB

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those chosen, living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who prophesied about the grace that would come to you, searched and carefully investigated. 11 They inquired into what time or what circumstances the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified in advance to the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. These things have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—angels long to catch a glimpse of these things.

Our Salvation Story (1-2)

Whenever you were growing up, what day or event was the hardest to wait for / why?

Christmas

Was the day or event worth the wait?

Yes!

As Christians, we know that one day we will worship our Savior face to face! But until that time comes, we wait… waiting isn’t always easy, but it’s easier to wait whenever we have the right perspective. Yes, it will be worth the wait. Yes, our hope is secured. The reason why we know this is found in the opening 2 verses of this letter as Peter with the heart of a pastor reminds these people, who are suffering, who they are and who they belong to.

V1.

Peter notes that, first and foremost, these believers (literally the chosen of God) first find their identity in God, not in culture or society.

Why are we tempted at times to place our identity in the wrong thing?

We have the wrong focus and we care more about the things of this world instead of the world to come. This is easy for us to do because we see the things around us often and we see the majority of people around us placing their identity in the things of this world, so naturally we will long to do this as well due to society and our sinful nature… but we have to guard against this and realize first and foremost that our identity is in Christ!

These people are suffering greatly as we’ll see throughout this letter. Every single time suffering shows up (and it does 19 times in these 5 chapters), Peter links our suffering as Christians to the suffering of our Savior, Jesus Christ… our temporary suffering is nothing out of the ordinary! Peter begins this book by grounding our salvation in the plan of God.

How does remembering our salvation story help us in times of great suffering?

We remember that our God has a purpose and a plan for us and that He will sustain and hold us fast in hard times. We better understand who we are by remembering WHOSE we are. We might be aliens, but we’re chosen aliens and that has to encourage us whenever this world tries to kick us down. Sometimes that language can make people feel a bit uneasy, but it is intended to be a wellspring of encouragement and truth and joy for genuine believers to be able to remember that the Father has chosen us and that this world can’t change what He has done. Some folks even in the church might squirm and say that’s not fair and that’s a negative word that we should shy away from, but if the Bible says it, that settles it. Every time this phrase shows up, it’s a positive thing, and we’d better treat it as a positive as well!

V. 2:

Warren Wiersbe put it like this, “We have been chosen by the Father, purchased by the Son, and set apart by the Spirit. It takes all 3 if there is to be a true experience of salvation.”

Think of your spiritual birth certificate like this:

Father - before the foundation of the earth

Son - when He died for me on the cross

Spirit - when I was 5 and received Christ as Lord and Savior

We’ll see throughout this letter that we are responsible to respond to the Gospel with repentance and faith, but we have to see from the beginning that our salvation story is apart of something much larger than just ourselves. It’s apart of God’s eternal plan to redeem a people to glorify Him in this life and in eternity to come (Glorify Thy Name).

Peter starts this letter pastorally by reminding these Christians that they are saved and in Christ. No amount of suffering can change that reality. No amount of pain can alter Jesus’ work in our place on the cross. As Romans 8:1 reminds us

Romans 8:1 CSB

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,

Our Secure Hope (3-5)

As we remember our salvation story, our brain should flock to the source of our salvation - Jesus Christ. In the verses that follow, we see 1 long, run-on sentence in the Greek, but we’ll divide it into 3 separate chunks.

One of the great truths we see in Scripture is that our salvation is due to the mercy and grace of our heavenly Father, not due to our hard work and perfection as humans. In fact, 1 Peter 1:3 reminds us of this truth as we see that it is because of His great mercy that we have a new birth and a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If our salvation story was exclusively up to ourselves, would we have a secure hope?

NO!

If your works could save you, your works could also un-save you and you’d have no hope in that world. Instead, what we see in Scripture is that our God saves us and He holds us fast due to His great mercy

2 Corinthians 4:1 CSB

1 Therefore, since we have this ministry because we were shown mercy, we do not give up.

Paul writes this to the church in Corinth - we have a responsibility, a ministry, as Christians and it’s because God showed us mercy and saved us. This is what Peter is getting at as well in our text. We have been given mercy from God and He has saved us, literally given us a new birth - a resurrection.

One of the pictures the New Testament paints of Christians is that of a family - we’re adopted into God’s family alongside countless brothers and sisters who have also been adopted. If we were adopted into God’s family, what does that tell us about our previous status?

Ephesians 2 tells us that we used to be children under wrath by nature - we were separated from God and not adopted into His family

Our birth says a lot about us - every legal document you fill out the rest of your life will require you to insert information about your birth (white/hispanic/asian etc…). Again, Peter is sharing that we have a new and better identity and it is through Jesus Christ. Our new birth isn’t due to our natural citizenship or biological parents… it’s the result of God and His Son, Jesus Christ dying for us on the cross.

Jesus, in John 3 explains the importance of being born again

John 3:3 CSB

3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

The only way that we can be born again is to repent of our sins, place our faith in Christ as Lord and Savior, and have Him literally change us into a new creation.

How does the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ give us “Living Hope” today?

We know that whatever happens to us in this life, our salvation and eternal hope is secure in Christ who defeated death. The worst that this world can do to us is kill us, and since Jesus defeated death for His followers, all death can do is make us better and take us to our Father. We have hope in life and in death! Because of this, Peter shares that we have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading kept in heaven and being guarded by God’s power.

This is all logical, if you are a child of God, you have been born again, you have a living hope and a special inheritance because you are God’s children. What is the only condition given to receive this inheritance?

FAITH

In order to be a child of God, you must have faith! After all, we know Ephesians 2:8-9 says that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ. This is our story and this story leads to a living hope and a secure inheritance.

Dennis Johnson, “Our salvation/hope/inheritance serves as a fountain and reservoir of deep delight in God in order to sustain and strengthen the Christian soul when everything else threatens to destroy us.” Nothing in this world can rob you of that eternal hope and joy and salvation because, again, we have a living hope in the person and work of Jesus Christ!

Our Sanctification Process (6-9)

We’re really good through these first 5 verses - we are God’s chosen people, adopted into His family through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, we have a living hope that no one or thing can take away, our home is heaven, and God will see that we get there through His power! I love this book. Of course we agree with verse 6, we rejoice in this!

Verse 6 marks a noticeable shift in the letter, though. Now Peter brings up suffering. Suffering can seem like a mountain that we cannot climb, but the joy of Jesus is of such magnitude that our joy generates enough strength and power in our lives that we can endure even great suffering. These believers were experiencing present suffering. We don’t rejoice about suffering - suffering is a result of the presence of sin in this world… but we can rejoice while enduring suffering because we know that suffering is sanctifying. What is one reason to rejoice in suffering?

God is accomplishing something through the suffering

Consider all the reasons we have to rejoice in our text:

God has chosen us

God has given mercy to us

God has made us alive

God has given us a living hope/future inheritance

We can rejoice at all times

Sadly, we don’t always display joy in times of suffering often times because our focus is more on our temporary circumstances than it is on our eternal security and identity. Whenever we fail to consider Jesus and His call for our lives, we will forfeit our joy.

One of the purposes of suffering is our sanctification which means to grow to become more like Jesus. 1 Peter 1:6 says “If Necessary” this means that God has a purpose in our suffering. The purpose here is like a fire. A fire hurts and is hot and is dangerous… but it has a purpose for those metals as it refines the impurities out of them in order to remove what doesn’t need to be there so that what does need to be there is magnified. A refining fire is what suffering is like in our lives. As we suffer, God weeds out things that don’t need to be present in our lives so that we will trust and depend even more on Him and less on self and our sinful world.

What is something you learned in suffering that has aided your sanctification?

That I’m not as powerful as the world tells me that I am - that I must rely on Jesus for literally everything in my life because without Him I’m nothing

We know that gold is valuable, but approved faith is said to be even more valuable because gold eventually will be destroyed but faith will endure whenever Jesus Christ comes for the second time (revelation - literally apokalypis)

The end result of faith in Jesus Christ is salvation. We haven’t seen Him, but we love and believe in Him. So many in our world view suffering wrongly and fail to see the good that God does in the midst of suffering, that they fail to rejoice and give thanks at all times as God’s Word instructs of us

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 CSB

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray constantly, 18 give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

This isn’t to say that everything is good… but we know that our God works all things for the good of His people. This is our sanctification process - growing to be more like Jesus one day at a time.

Before moving on, I want to share this quote from Juan Sanchez, “With this exuberant joy, we can face Christian suffering, knowing that God is using these trials to prepare us to obtain our future salvation. Suffering has taken nothing that you need, because Christ is who you need. As we endure faithfully, we are encouraged that our faith is real. As we keep loving and believing in Jesus through trials, we are encouraged that our faith is authentic.” Perseverance through suffering is a sign of sanctification and regeneration

Our Sweet Message (10-12)

The dominant doctrine of Christianity is salvation and this is what sets Christianity apart from every other major religion out there as we celebrate our God coming to save sinners who could not save themselves whereas other religions celebrate what mankind has done to get to God. The whole of the Bible is a story of salvation as God creates, redeems, and restores sinners to Himself. We see this story in the Old Testament and as 1 Peter 1:10 tells us, the prophets even knew that there would come a Messiah - a Savior - who would redeem God’s people. We can think of this in Isaiah 53 with the Suffering Servant. Daniel 7:13-14 and his vision of the coming Son of Man. But we can even go back to Genesis 3 and see this promise of a Snake-Crushing Savior. These Old Testament people longed for the Messiah’s coming. They couldn’t wait for Jesus to come and change everything… but they didn’t get to experience those things. They lived on the other side of the cross while we live on this side of it and can look back with certainty at all that Jesus has done. We can look back at all they prophesied about and see how in Christ all of God’s promises are YES and AMEN

What we see in verse 12 is that the prophets proclaimed the Messiah and this is the message that we are called to proclaim today as well. We are called to share this glorious message that there is a redeemer named Jesus Christ who provides the hopeless with hope, the fatherless with a family, the purposeless with purpose, and the suffering with certainty. This is the best message of all to share and it’s all because our Lord Jesus Christ lives today - we have a living hope - we serve a living Savior. While we may not have answers to all the questions in our brains concerning Jesus and His return, we do know that He has saved us, changed us, has a purpose for us each day of our lives. The angels know a little bit about this - they rejoice whenever a sinner repents (Luke 15:10) but they will never experience this salvation. So many wrongly think that humans become angels whenever they die - that’s not an upgrade, that’s a downgrade! Angels wish they could be in the position that redeemed sinners are in as we can proclaim of the mercy and grace and forgiveness of our Savior - we have a joyous message to share!

How should our identity with Christ impact our interactions with others in this life?

How does this text provide you with unshakeable hope and enduring joy?

What is the ultimate result of faith in God according to this text?

How does this text encourage us to worship Jesus in the good and difficult days of this life?

In the weeks to come we’ll continue walking through this book and be encouraged and challenged to find hope while living in exile and to share this hope with a hopeless world.