1 Peter 1:3-12

Introduction

doxology why it is so important

Thank God We Can Eulogize Our Dead Lives Before Life In Christ

1 Peter 1:3–5 “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.”

opening doxology as how we stand firm

A eulogy is given at a funeral

It is a rememberance because something is gone

This is an awesome thing Peter does

He holds a eulogy for the dead life and dead hope we had before Jesus

He had lost hope because the Jesus He wanted seemed to fail

Then the resurrection happened and he saw his old way of believing could never bring life

That should connect with all of us

Before Christ we all held onto other things we thought would satisfy us

Some way of life or philosophy of life

Hook up culture, or atheism, or the American Dream

We all clung to something for life and it never delivered

But in the death of what we thought would save us we found life in the real Jesus

Peter saw what Jesus really came to do

Peter saw how what looked to be the end of Hope was the only way for hope to be born

A living hope means there is a dead hope a hope that is a wish dream

We have all chased dead hopes and still do

But for us In Christ A new hope was born

I love his description of it

It is nothing short of a new birth into a living hope when our old hopes failed us

1 Peter 1. The Opening Doxology (1:3–5)

Christians have a new identity and a new citizenship that redefines everything

The First Epistle of Peter A. Opening Thanksgiving (1:3–12)

He says thank God the old hopes have died. Peter does not focus on the past, even the new birth itself, but on the future, for the goal of this regeneration is “a living hope”; that is, it points to a bright future ahead

Our Hope is alive Because Our Redeemer is Alive

Hebrews says more then that

He is alive in an indestructible body like ours

This isn’t a dead hope. Nor is it wishful.

The Message of 1 Peter 1. God Establishes Our Hope in Christ (1:3)

Christ’s resurrection spells hope for us not just because he lives, but because, by God’s mercy, we live. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. By the resurrection of Christ, God has given life, not only to him, but to us. We are given new birth by God;. In Christ’s triumph God makes all things new, beginning with us.

Meditate on being born again.

We celebrate our birthdays, and we thank God for keeping us this far. Well, thank God for causing you to be born again, to a living hope.

The Message of 1 Peter 1. God Establishes Our Hope in Christ (1:3)

Peter writes a letter of hope. The hope he proclaims is not what we call a ‘fond hope’. We cherish fond hopes because they are so fragile. We ‘hope against hope’ because we do not really expect what we hope for. But Peter writes of a sure hope, a hope that holds the future in the present because it is anchored in the past. Peter hopes for God’s salvation, God’s deliverance from sin and death. His hope is sure, because God has already accomplished his salvation in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

The resurrection of Jesus was a life-changing reality for Peter. When Jesus died on the cross, it was the end of all Peter’s hopes. He knew only bitter sorrow for his own denials. The dawn could not bring hope; with the crowing of the cock he heard the echo of his curses.

But Jesus did not stay dead

I struggle with attacks from the enemy that are vicious

I was talking to a counseling friend and he said but what if that stuff was dead and didn’t exist

What if what you have is brand new because of Christ and no one has ever had it before

That is the power of the Gospel

You can eulogize the sin in you because it is not who you are

And one day soon we have a sure hope that it won’t even be remembered

That is the paradox

In this life we are still stung but have a sure hope

Joy and Hard Reality At The Same Time

1 Peter 1:6–7 “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.”

we saw that week we place the weight of the glory of God’s saving us on the scales of our life

But Peter is not naive

There is weight on the other side

Suffering is heavy

We rejoice that we have been brought from death to life

We know the leaves of the bible russtle with the rumor things won’t always be this way

But the in between is a war on our hope

Life is a sharp contrast of our Christian hope and reality

The First Epistle of Peter A. Opening Thanksgiving (1:3–12)

The “rejoice” is not a continual feeling of laughing or a denial of the reality of pain and suffering

The First Epistle of Peter A. Opening Thanksgiving (1:3–12)

it is an anticipatory joy experienced even now because we know that suffering doesn’t get the last word

We have an anticipation and hope that everything sad is going to come unture

The clock is running out of cancer and funerals and grief and people you trust going behind your back and addiction winning again and again and on and on

the clock is running out and soon you won’t even remember its name anymore

Peter wants us to just meditate for a minute on how you will feel when you see Christ

Imagine that moment if it was right now where the sky spits open

Either you will run in fear because you were never His…or you will be running toward him with me

I won’t remember my cousins overdose I will see that the King has won

I won’t remember the pain of a christmas I had no where to live and slept in a storage unit because of my addiction

I will run to the God who set His affections on me even then and stopped at nothing to save me and bring me from death to life

we can look forward to Jesus’ appearance and that can encourage us through hardship.

But we live in the waiting

Peter is saying specifically that your identification with Christ will bring suffering and in some ways make common suffering harder to interpret

Kids are meaning makers

They are always trying to make sense of the world

Asking questions watching what mom and dad do learning what is the norm or not

We are the same as Christians

Paul Tripp says “We don’t just experience the things we go through. We experience the way we interpret the things we go through”

As Christians the world makes our life harder

But suffering when God has promised to save us can make us interpret our salvation as a fasle hope or that we got it wrong

It is one thing to suffer it is another to suffer and feel in your soul that God has let you down

Peter is saying remember that He has brought you from death to life

Remember the Gospel in your life

Karen Jobes says -

1 Peter b. Genuine Faith is Tested Faith (1:7)

Peter does not wish his readers to confuse the testing of their faith with the failure of their faith or to think that their distress implies they have inadequate faith

Genuine Faith is a Tested Faith

But What good do chemotherapy, a NICU stay, a car accident, or persecution for our faith actually accomplish?

The bible speaks to this alot

: God tested Hezekiah to know all that was in his heart.2 Chronicles 32:31

: God tested Israel in the wilderness to know what was in their hearts.Deuteronomy 8:2

: God granted a false prophet to succeed in foretelling the future, to know whether Israel loved the Lord their God.Deuteronomy 13:3

: God left some pagan nations in the promised land of Israel to know whether Israel would obey.Judges 3:4

John Piper says: In other words, God tested them in all these situations to bring words and behaviors out of their hearts that God could see and know in actual lived-out reality.

DONT MISS THIS: God tests us in all these situations to bring words and behaviors out of their hearts that God could see and know in actual lived-out reality.

God wants to see the lived-out reality of what he knows is in us.

Because when He sees it and we see it we get stronger

There are different types of knowing

God knows everything so it’s not like He is finding out something about us He doesn’t know

Think of a husband and wife though

Morgan knows I love her

But when I take a Marshalls return for her and stop to get her a matcha on the way home she knows it in a real way in that moment

That is what God wants in testing Us

he wants to take joy in the loved out reality of our faith in Him

that is exactly what Peter says here - Verse 6- you suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith

When that lived out reality of your faith comes out in a moment of suffering it is worth more then Gold Peter says

When you see a win against sin where you used to only see losses that is worth more then Gold

And it is worth more then anything to God

Just as my return from Marshalls with a Matcha is worth more to Morgan then any I love you or flowers

We have a priviledged seat for the unfolding of the epic to give us even more courage in the moment to live out our faith in trial

The Privileged Position We Have

1 Peter 1:8–13 “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.”