The Hope of Eternal Life

Revelation (Blue) • Explanation (Black) • Illustration (Red) • Consultation (Green) • Application (Purple)

INTRODUCTION

CONTEXT

We have to know the CONTEXT to fully understand what we are about to study:

The author is the Apostle Peter

Peter was Simon but Jesus renamed him.

The reason because Peter means rock.

The letter was written in the latter part of Peter’s life.

It was written to believers in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

1 Peter has a single focus of encouraging Christians to exhibit faithfulness under the pressure arising from persecution.

The believers who it was written to were in the midst of trials.

The culture mocked/hated their faith, criticized their morality, and mocked their hope.

Peter calls on readers to respond to this pressure with a renewed commitment to live out the grace of God, both to please God and to bear witness to him.

TEACHING SCRIPTURE

Chapter 1

Greetings from Peter

This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 2 God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace.

The Hope of Eternal Life

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. 5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. 6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. 8 You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. 10 This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. 11 They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward. 12 They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.

THREE TRUTHS FROM THE TEXT

1. We Have a Inheritance.

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. 5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

Reminder: Mercy means undeserved kindness

It’s like this when I was freshly graduated HS I had started paying for my phone bill & some other things.

I had a bill go through that I didn’t know was on the account and I didn’t have the money to cover it.

It wound up being close too a 1K that I owed.

My dad went on my behalf to the bank

They cleared EVERY debt I owed.

The same is true for what Jesus did and what the apostle Peter is saying here.

So we don’t DESERVE to be born again but because God loves us he sent his son Jesus so that we could have NEW LIFE!

And because of this we can live like it says in GREAT EXPECTATION and that we have a PRICELESS inheritance

So what is this Priceless Inheritance?

Inheritance in scripture usually refers to what God has promised his people.

Side note our part in God’s promises is to say AMEN which means to Agree with!

Back to the point in the OT the inheritance God promised was the land of Israel where God would dwell with his people.

In the NT the inheritance it’s talking about here is the eternal salvation that God promises for his people (JESUS FOLLOWERS)

HEB. 9:15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.

You also may be wondering why the Author says “you receive this salvation”

What he is saying is that when Jesus comes back again for our final rescue from sin and death.

We have already been eternally freed from it but still have to face it on this earth until we pass or Jesus comes again!

Because of this inheritance we can live our truth #2 which is . . .

2. We Find Joy in Suffering.

6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. 8 You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

The reason we can rejoice is because of the inheritance even in the face of TRIALS.

When Peter is saying “a little while” he is not saying they will be short but he is referring to this life as a little while.

Take this rope of cord example:

Black tape this life

The Rest is Eternity

That is why we STRESS this to you so much because everything in this life and everything you will face is BRIEF compared to the eternity you will spend SOMEWHERE!

I love how he gives the image of fire tests and purifies gold. Fire shows real gold and if there is an impurity it will melt it away.

Same is with your faith when the trials of this life come it’s going to test your faith and reveal if its true and purify anything in your faith walk.

When a trial comes you may have been dependent on a sport to much and you realize that and this injury has now purified your viewpoint to put God back in the number one spot in your life!

The last thing we see is . . .

3. We Live in Revelation

10 This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. 11 They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward. 12 They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.

They Wondered

A lot of the future events of the NT were revealed to the Old Testament prophets, but they did not know when or how the salvation that they predicted would happen was actually going to happen.

They knew the messiah(Jesus) would suffer before he was glorified, but they didn’t know who the messiah would be!

Angels are eagerly watching

This is pretty cool because angels are watching what Jesus did because they don’t know what is coming.

Angels, on the other hand, do not know the sweetness of redemption.

They have no experiential knowledge of grace and salvation. Angels in heaven have not been separated from God, nor have they personally known reconciliation or the depth of intimacy that follows.

It is a foreign concept that piques their curiosity.

The Greek word for “to look into” means “to physically stoop down, peer intently, and inspect curiously.”

Over the course of human history, angels have had a front row seat in watching God’s redemptive work with humanity (1 Timothy 3:16).

The book of Hebrews describes them as “ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14, ESV).

They are amazed by salvation and lean in attentively, longing to understand its mysteries.

It is IMPORTANT to know that the angels who disobeyed God are not restored or redeemed like humanity.

Demons

The Son of God became a man to redeem humanity; He did not become an angel to redeem the heavenly host.

Angels cannot fully understand salvation, as it is not for them.

On the flip side we are now in the moments like the prophets except we KNOW how the story ends . . . but by God’s grace we can watch it unfold

WALKAWAY

This week your challenge is to live with this in your mindset.

You have an Inheritance

You have the opportunity to have Joy in Suffering.

You have God’s Revelation.

Brother & Sister in Christ have great hope and stand firm in the grace God has given you!