Born For This

Intro.

Blessing. Hope. Inheritance. These are all words that we use on a fairly regular basis. Even in the more spiritual context of Scripture. However, for me, these words took awhile to really come to life for me. It took a long time for me to really grasp the reality of these words; or, at least, to understand them in a more broad way as they are used in the Holy Scriptures.

This morning, I want us to take a look at each of these three words as they are used by Peter our brother in his first epistle. My aim for us is that we would come away from this study ready joyful and glad for all that our Father has done for us and given us in Christ the Lord.

Peter’s Point

1 Peter is an epistle which speaks heavily on the topic of suffering in the Christian life, and the grace from God that the Church receives in the midst of that suffering. As we now begin to get into the meat of this letter, we are going to hone in on the different ways grace is given to Christians even in the midst of their suffering and even persecution.

I’m going to be following probably fairly closely the outline that was shown to me by my instructors at Sunset, and I will use that as a general frame work.

Our first section of text is going to cover 1:1-16. No, we will not cover it all in one go, but I want you to to be able to expect the general idea we will be looking at in this block of text the next few weeks. This section of the epistle we will call “Gracious Heirs”

1 Peter 1:1–16 CSB

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those chosen, living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen 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. 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 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials 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. 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, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who prophesied about the grace that would come to you, searched and carefully investigated. 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. 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. Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance. But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.

Blessing God?

Peter begins here with a phrase that sort of confused me for a very long time: “Blessed be…God.” I don’t know about you, but when I think of blessings I usually think of giving somebody something. Blessings from God are often associated with the things that He does for us and on our behalf, and it’s the same for when we say we bless other people.

So, what does it mean when Peter here says “blessed be....God”?

This is one of those moments where many people will have to dig under the surface to find the answer. It is easy enough to look online at the Greek to see what the original words meant. Sometimes, word definitions aren’t as helpful as we would like them to be, but here it really is.

The word is a compound coming from two Greek words meaning “Good” and “Word”. We know the word “eulogy,” right? The word Peter uses here is merely a version of where that word in English comes from! So when we look at what is usually in a eulogy, it is speaking well of a person. Therefore, to “bless…God” is to speak good words about God! That is an element of praise, is it not? To bless God is to offer praise to Him in truth, saying good things and speaking truth about His awesomeness and majesty!

In the Scripture we see this put into practice often times in the prayers of the faithful in the Old and New Testaments. As they pray, they verbally and truthfully admire God and His character in a number of ways. I believe we have been able to see that in the Psalms we have studied lately, and you could also look I believe in Nehemiah 9 at his prayer, and at Jonah 2 at this prophet’s prayer from the inside of a fish. We could also look at how the Apostles were praising God in the midst of their persecutions in the book of Acts — even though we don’t know what they said, we know that they were lifting good and true words up to God in worship. This is what it is to bless the Lord!

Perhaps it’s worth a moment of meditation for each of us to reflect on how we really bless our God?

A New Hope

So, we’ve just gotten a bit of a deeper insight into the first of three concepts we’re looking at this morning. Now, we take a deeper look at another word: Hope.

I think this is a word that has, over time due to the evolution of the English language, become something different than what it is intended to mean by the biblical authors and translators. Here’s what I mean.

“I really hope I get to see this person later in the week.”

“I really hope I can pay my bills this month.”

“I really hope that person is doing okay after their injury!”

“I really hope the sermon doesn’t go on for 40 minutes!”

These are all common ways that we use the word “hope” in our modern vernacular, right? But what is actually being communicated?

When we say “hope” in this way, what we really tend to mean in a feeling of desire in some way or another. It’s not something that we really know if we can expect to receive, but we sure do want it!

This is NOT what the biblical authors mean when they wrote about hope! What did they mean instead?

The word used actually carries with it the idea of expectation with confidence!

With that in mind, let’s see again what Peter says about our hope: 1 Pet 1.3

1 Peter 1:3 CSB

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

We are entirely born again — This is in step with what Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3 that we must be born again of water and Spirit! It is also in step with Paul’s teaching to the Colossian Christians that when we became Christians we were made new creatures! That kind of new means an entirely different kind, not just a refreshed version of the old. You, through faith and by the Spirit who works to sanctify you through the offering of Christ according to the choosing and foreknowledge of the Father are made an entirely new creature and born again “to a living hope.”

This confident expectation has life! It has eternal life, not a temporal life that comes and goes — our hope to which we are born again by God’s mercy never ever goes away!

Why? Because our hope is “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”! He will only ever raise from the dead once, and He will never taste death again! Because our Lord and Savior is alive and well, so is the confident expectation of the Christian!

Expecting Inheritance

But, what are we confidently expecting? After all, we haven’t said what we are expecting, and without knowing that part the rest is just sort of cool linguistic knowledge.

1 Peter 1:4 CSB

and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

We, Christians born again according to the mercy of God, confidently expect and wait for our inheritance which is kept in heaven for us!

I’m reminded of God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob — that their descendants would inhabit the land of Canaan as an inheritance from God Himself given to them. Over 400 years after the original promise to Abraham, Joshua says that God fulfilled His promise and Israel received all the land He promised them! Nothing was left our from His promise, because God is faithful and true!

Just like God was true and faithful to His promise to the descendants of Abraham to bring them to their home land, He will be faithful to bring every Christian to the inheritance awaiting us in Christ! God Himself keeps it in heaven for us and it is undefiled, imperishable, and unfading!

Rom. 8.16-17 is in perfect symmetry with Peter here that we are heirs of promises from the Father, and even says we are coheirs with Christ the Lord!

Galatians 3:27–4:7 CSB

For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise. Now I say that as long as the heir is a child, he differs in no way from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. Instead, he is under guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elements of the world. When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.

We have been adopted into God’s household through the new birth by God’s mercy. In this adoption, God took that which was had no ties to Him (because of sin) and reconciled it to bring it home (by the work of Christ through faith).

We see that God has promised us this inheritance in Christ as He has adopted us, and it’s worth remembering that the Spirit within us seals us and is a down-payment of the promises of God yet to be received by His people!

Lastly to note, remember what Jesus said about laying up treasure in heaven? Matt. 6.20 — Peter tells us that this inheritance is exactly that: where neither moth nor rust destroy.

Brethren, we have a good promise from our Father of an inheritance that will never be going anywhere except into the possession of God’s faithful children who endure to the end, as Revelation says numerous times. 1 Peter is a book, as we said, written to remind Christians who would soon experience great persecution of the grace they have been given, and Peter starts off by reminding them that by grace and mercy they are heirs to an incredible inheritance which they wait for confidently in eager expectation!

Inventory

Church, life is hard sometimes, right? There is suffering that takes place in many different ways. Whether it is direct persecution like the recipients of the letter would soon face or just things in life that are resultant of fallen humanity — suffering is universal. And it is assured that those who are dedicated to the cause of Christ will experience suffering and share with Christ!

In the suffering of life, we must not lose our inexpressible joy which we have in knowing we are heirs to an inheritance from God!

Has our joy over this grace from God been lost in the daily trials of life?

The Christian should be the most joyous for the fact that we know our suffering is never in vein, and we should be the boldest in the midst of trial for the same reason!

I don’t know what your trial is: Whether it is temptation, people, persecution, health, or anything else. But though these trials be many and persistent, I want you to take a good long look at just these three things we’ve mentioned today.

Really grasp onto your confident expectation of your inheritance and bless the Lord with joy in heart! This week, take time to meditate on the awesomeness of the inheritance that is coming, and then look at yourself and how you handle pain and trial. Is it fitting of one who can expect such an awesome reward through steadfastness? Be strengthened through knowing God and His faithfulness, that He will make good on what He promised us! We just have to hold on to Christ in faith! Do not lost faith, or you will lose your hope too!