Reasons to Praise
Notes
Transcript
Christnet: Frostbite, worship, hearing their stories
(1 Pet. 1:3-12
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, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 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. 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.
Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
Intro:
1. Title: Lost in the Wilderness
Scenario: Imagine being lost in a dense forest with no idea which way to turn. Every direction looks the same, and fear starts to creep in as darkness falls. Suddenly, a beam of light breaks through the trees, guiding you to safety.
story: lost in the woods at night without a flashlight
Key Point: Just as a lost traveler finds hope in a guiding light, we can find hope and direction in God's promises even in the darkest times.
Recall that Peter wrote to those in severe trials.
But he does not focus on their earthly trials.
Rather, he turns their attention toward eternal truths.
Trials are real and painful.
Yet as we turn away from our trials toward our Father,
we receive strength.
So instead of looking down on our problems,
we look up and celebrate the salvation we enjoy.
We choose to focus on promise,
not the problem.
We fix our eyes on Christ,
not the crisis.
After the greeting, Peter begins:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!”
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
The word for Blessed/praise in the Greek is eulogy
-which combines eu (well)
and a form of logos (word).
Sometimes there is a *eulogy at a funeral.
Eulogy means “to speak well of.”
At funerals, people may eulogize a dead loved one-speaking well of him.
We could translate 1 Peter 1:3 as
“Let the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be eulogized.”
When we are in a struggle,
we often complain to God for letting us be in that situation.
Instead, Peter guides us to eulogize or praise our Father.
Notice that Peter says,
“Let the Father be eulogized.”
Many have not had a good earthly father.
So when they hear the words “God the Father,”
they may transfer bad feelings toward Him
-like feelings they have toward their earthly father.
But no matter whether your earthly father was good or bad,
the Lord Jesus Christ had a good Father.
And as believers,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
is our Father too!
and we now have a good Father
So let us give praise to our gracious Heavenly Father.
Let us eulogize Him.
Peter praises or eulogizes God our Father
for the salvation which we enjoy.
He gives thanks for four things about our salvation.
In this lesson, we will study these four great truths,
that cause us to eulogize our Father.”
Reasons To Praise
We have a living hope,
a guaranteed inheritance,
a purpose in our trials,
and a salvation with the highest of privileges.
1. Let us praise our Father for His great mercy!
1. Let us praise our Father for His great mercy!
(1 Pet. 1:3
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,
In His great mercy the Father “has given us” new birth
new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Our salvation is not the result of our own efforts.
God has given it to us!
God’s mercy moved His heart to give us new birth.
This new birth we experience results in “a living hope.”
Peter goes beyond just the word hope
to living hope.
He contrasts dead and living hope.
Some hope has died.
There are things people hoped for,
that are no longer possible.
Time has a way of killing some hopes.
But our hope is not earthly,
or temporary.
Our hope is supernatural.
We have a guaranteed hope.
We have a living hope.
Our hope is alive for two reasons:
We are alive through the new birth,
and Jesus is alive.
At the Resurrection Jesus Christ arose from the dead.
As Jesus promised: “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19).
“After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.
Our living hope is as certain as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is the cornerstone of our faith.
and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.
If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,
Our living hope is as certain as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is the cornerstone of our faith.
We know that salvation is ours
because of the mercy of God,
through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So our first eulogy to God is for our living hope.
We do not deserve our salvation.
And it was so expensive that we could never have earned it
or bought it.
But God gave it to us.
We were born into this hope through the Spirit,
and through the life and death of Jesus!
So first, let us praise our Father for His great mercy!
2. Let us praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
2. Let us praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
God has given us “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for us” (1 Pet. 1:4).
Behold the grace of our Father.
We do not work for it.
All we do is repent,
and receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord.
With this, we receive the estate our Father has promised
the gift of salvation and eternal life
Peter describes our inheritance.
1. He says it cannot be destroyed.
2. It can never perish.
Jewish Christians knew a lot about the word inheritance.
In the Old Testament,
inheritance describes Canaan
-the Promised Land that God gave to the Jews.
But that inheritance perished.
Other nations conquered the Jews
and took their inheritance away from them.
Time after time, foreign armies of Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome-invaded and trampled the Holy Land.
But the Holy Spirit inspires Peter to tell God’s new Israel, the Church,
that we have an inheritance kept for us
that can never be destroyed
and that never perishes.
Peter wrote to believers who were scattered.
Unbelievers confiscated (took) their houses and lands,
and chased them from Jerusalem (Acts 8).
Rich unbelievers stole their wages (James 5).
Peter encourages these aliens and refugees.
Their true inheritance is safe.
It can never perish.
It can never spoil or corrode.
It can never fade,
like an earthly garment.
And it cannot be stolen.
The inheritance God has for believers is guarded
“kept in heaven for us” (1 Pet. 1:4).
Likewise, we believers are also guarded.
through faith [we] are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:5).
who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Our Father has given us an eternal inheritance that is safe,
and we are safe as we walk in faith.
Some are shielded from death,
and others are shielded through death (Heb. 11:33-39).
who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,
quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection;
and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated
(men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.
And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised,
As the old Hymn says, God Leads Us Along
Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season and all the day long.
Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season and all the day long.
So first, let us praise our Father for His great mercy!
So second, let us praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Let us turn from our trials
to praise our Father for the living hope
and the lasting inheritance He has given us.
Transition. Peter refers to “salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time’ (1 Pet. 1:5).
who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Our salvation includes three tenses:
past, present, and future.
As John Wesley said, “I was saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved.”
At the new birth we were justified,
declared “not guilty”
-saved from the penalty of our sins.
Filled with the Spirit,
and walking in the Spirit,
we are saved from the power of sin (Rom. 8; Gal. 5:16, 24-25).
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
But the greatest revelation of our salvation is future.
When Jesus Christ returns,
our earthly bodies will be transformed.
Then we will shine brighter than the sun,
like Jesus, whom Paul saw at his conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).
We will behold God face to face,
and live with Him forever!
He will give Himself to us,
be our God,
and we will be His people.
There will be no more tears and no more night (Rev. 21:4, 25).
and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
Salvation is wonderful now.
But the best is yet to come
-when Jesus returns
3. Let us praise our Father for these three aspects of our salvation.
3. Let us praise our Father for these three aspects of our salvation.
In this [salvation] you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 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. 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.
Peter says we rejoice in our trials.
This reminds us of Paul and Silas singing at midnight in prison
with their backs bleeding from a beating (Acts 16).
God gives a song in the night.
He gives joy in the darkest hour.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
God gives joy on the inside,
in spite of trials on the outside.
Heaven is forever.
But trials are only for a season.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
The trials of believers to whom Peter wrote lasted at least 30 years.
But this was only a little while compared to forever.
A millennium is like the blink of an eye,
compared to eternity.
An ocean is like the water in a tea cup,
compared to the space of the universe.
Our light afflictions on earth are like a moment,
like the twinkling of an eye,
compared to everlasting heaven.
Trials cause grief.
And they come in many colors, shapes, and sizes.
Peter writes about “all kinds of trials” (1 Pet. 1:6).
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
The Greek word means “many-colored trials.
Some trials are darker than others.
Some are more painful than others.
But Peter is saying that there are no trials
in our human situations
that the grace of God does not exceed.
Trials hurt.
They cause tears,
heartache,
anxiety
-many forms of suffering.
But trials have a purpose.
We grow up in our trials.
As Peter exhorts, “Grow up in your salvation” (1 Pet. 2:2).
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
So we believers do not waste our trials.
We hurt well!
We learn to be patient
and to trust God in our hard times.
We lose our desires for sin in our trials.
“He who has suffered in his body is done with sin” (1 Pet. 4:1).
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
Trials refine us, as fire refines gold (1 Pet. 1:7; James 1:3; Rom. 5:3-4).
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
Note that a form of the Greek word dokimon appears twice in 1 Peter 1:7,
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.
first referring to the refining of gold,
and second referring to the refining of faith.
Suffering turns our eyes from the seen to the unseen.
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.
Trials are a vital process God uses to perfect and mature us.
Looking ahead, Peter says that our trials
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
Salvation gives us:
a living hope,
a lasting inheritance,
and a purified faith.
So first, let us praise our Father for His great mercy!
So second, let us praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
So third, let us praise our Father for these three aspects of our salvation.
4. Let us lift up our heads and praise our Father as we wait for our Lord and Savior to appear.
4. Let us lift up our heads and praise our Father as we wait for our Lord and Savior to appear.
Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
Peter gives us a fourth reason to praise our Father.
Our salvation stirs up in us a sense of privilege.
Even in our trials,
we should remember there are people and angels
who would change places with us if they could.
Peter wrote to suffering believers in the first century.
Some were evicted from their homes.
These refugees were displaced,
scattered,
chased out of town,
and cheated out of their wages.
Some were imprisoned
and others murdered.
The books of Hebrews and the General Epistles encourage believers in fiery trials.
Still, Peter reminds them that others would gladly trade places.
Why? Because those in Christ are in a position of privilege
Because of salvation.
Peter says the Old Testament prophets would trade places with New Testament believers.
These prophets diligently searched.
Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully
This Greek word means “to look and to look and to look.”
The prophets were straining
to see the special time when the Messiah would come.
This was a time that all Israel looked forward to seeing.
Recall the joy of Simeon when he saw the baby Jesus.
It was the highlight of his life!
He was so delighted to see Jesus that he exclaimed:
“Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace,
According to Your word;
For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
A Light of revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.”
Simeon watched, prayed, and waited for years to see Jesus,
and the salvation He brought into the world.
Having seen it,
Simeon was ready to die.
His dream of a lifetime had come true.
Those under the New Testament live
in the time of the greatest privileges.
Our covenant of salvation,
under the ministry of Jesus our High Priest,
is superior to the old covenant.
Our covenant is founded on better promises
and better blood (Heb. 8:6; 9:12- 14).
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.
We live in the fulfillment of the superior new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:10).
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
“They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
In the times of the prophets, God’s law was written on stone.
But we have His law written on our hearts
-and His Spirit lives within us!
Any prophet of the old covenant would have preferred to live under the new covenant, if given the choice.
And Peter adds, “Even angels long to look into these things” (1 Pet. 1:12).
It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
Do you envy the angels?
I hope not, for they envy us!
We are lower than the angels now,
but we will be above them when we inherit our full salvation.
Paul says we will judge angels (1 Cor. 6:3).
Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
Angels are servants of those who will inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14).
Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
Angels are on the outside looking in
at the salvation we possess.
“If they could, they would trade places with us.”
We are in a place of great privilege in Christ.”
Peter is saying to believers,
“In your trials and the personal fiery furnace,
remember your place of privilege.
God is with you.
The prophets of old envy you,
and the angels would trade places with you if they could.”
In our trials, sufferings, and struggles,
Peter puts things in perspective.
We have a living hope,
a guaranteed inheritance,
a purpose our trials,
and a salvation with the highest of privileges.
So first, let us praise our Father for His great mercy!
So second, let us praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
So third, let us praise our Father for these three aspects of our salvation.
So fourth, let us lift up our heads and praise our Father
as we wait for our Lord and Savior to appear.
Prayer:
We thank You again, Father, for this salvation we enjoy.
There are some, Lord, who have passed through painful things,
and some are suffering even now.
You have sent this Word to us to let us know that You are with us.
In all those moments You are with us.
Not only is our inheritance kept for us,
but as we walk in faith,
You shield us.
Some here have lost possessions,
loved ones,
jobs,
or health.
So Your Word comes to us.
It tells us to look up and behold You,
and the riches You have for us.
In the midst of our troubles, Lord, we are encouraged.
We are strengthened.
We believe that You are at work in us through our fiery trials.
You are refining our character,
and transforming us into the image of Jesus.
Whatever comes our way,
You use it for a good purpose in us.
And at the end there is eternal reward
-praise, glory, and honor.
Thank You, Lord, for Your Word.
Amen.
6. Title: The Puzzle Pieces
Scenario: Visualize a person working on a jigsaw puzzle,
carefully fitting each piece together to reveal a beautiful picture.
Despite the frustration of some pieces not fitting at first,
they persist until the puzzle is complete.
Key Point: Like fitting puzzle pieces together,
our faith journey may seem confusing and challenging at times,
but each experience and trial ultimately fits into God's greater plan for our lives.
