Our Inheritance in Jesus the Christ
Notes
Transcript
This last week I hit pause. I did not get on Facebook, I watched very little news. I was feeling overwhelmed. It seemed like every time I turned of the television, there was more bad news. As you know, we are now supposed to wear face masks every time we are in a public place. The number of people infected by this virus just keep going up. I finally it overload, so I shut down. I just watched some Netflix, and some prime videos, and stayed at home.
I did discover that if you say the Lord’s prayer while washing your hands it takes about 20 seconds. I heard one health expert say this week, sing Old McDonald had a farm while washing because it takes 20 seconds. I suggest the Lord’s prayer, you may find like I did that each time you do it, you draw closer to God.
Speaking of drawing closer to God, this week I shifted my focus from this life to the next. No, I don’t plan to die soon, but the next life has so much to offer. Here what Peter had to say about it.
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.
I want to talk about our inheritance in Jesus the Christ. Our inheritance has two parts, first, our current inheritance, and second, our future inheritance.
Our Current Inheritance.
Our Current Inheritance.
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,
We think of an inheritance as something you receive after a family member or loved on passes away. But this inheritance is different. You begin to enjoy this inheritance as soon as you are born again. Peter tells us that we are to praise God for His great mercy because by his mercy we have been born again. And what comes with this new birth.
We are now part of God’s family.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
Peter says the first reason we bless God in because in his mercy He has saved us or a Peter puts it we have been born again.
Hilary the archbishop of Arles said, “His (or God’s) mercy is great enough to be able to forgive every sin committed in thought, word, and deed, from the beginning to the end of the world.”
Just take a moment and think about that, ever committed, from Adam and Eve’s eating the fruit in the garden to your sins and mine, to the sins we and others will commit in the future is all able to be forgiveness by God’s amazing mercy.
A part of our inheritance is our forgiveness of sin, here and now. Our sin was taken by Jesus to the cross.
In that beautiful hymn, “It is Well with my Soul,” the song writer, Spafford put it this way in verse 3.
Logos Digital Hymnal It Is Well with My Soul
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious tho’t!—
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
God does not just patch us up and send us out. God is not running a repair shop, God is about new birth.
Instead of a repair shop, God is is running a maturity ward.
Just like Jesus told Nicodemus, in
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Anyone who wants to see the kingdom of God must be born again. But notice, being born again is God’s work, not ours.
Just like it is the mother who does the hard work in the birth of a child, not the child, so in our salvation God, in his mercy, is doing the work of new birth.
The new birth is a part of our inheritance.
But what else do we know about our inheritance? Our inheritance is not only a current reality, it is a future promise.
Our Future Inheritance
Our Future Inheritance
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,
Peter calls our future inheritance our living hope. This hope is the eager, confident promise of a life to come. This hope is with us now. Peter calls it a living hope because is it alive, vital and growing within everyone who has been born again. Peter indicates our hope is growing and increasing every hour of every day of every year. It will continue to grow until Christ takes us home.
Wayne Grudem, a great theologian, has said, “If such a growing hope is the expected result of being born again, then perhaps the degree to which believers have an intense, confident expectation of the life to come is one useful measure of progress toward spiritual maturity.”
He went on to say, “It is not surprising that such a hope is particularly evident in many older Christians as they approach death.
As Christians we need to keep our minds firmly fixed on heaven.
You may have heard the saying that Christians are so heavenly minded, they are no earthly go, I fear the opposite is true, many Christians today are so earthly minded, they are no heavenly good.
Peter challenges us to focus, not on earth situations, but on our living hope. Peter says we a are born “to a Living hope.” or better, “Into a living hope” into the sphere and realm of a living hope.
So how does Peter define this hope that is to keep us focused on heaven.
First, Peter said it is imperishable.
First, Peter said it is imperishable.
Our hope is not subject to decay, unable to wear out with the passage of time.
Everyone we have is wearing out.
Last year I purchased a second hand riding lawn mower. I call it Frankenstein because was made from parts of a Troy built, and Huskey mowers, and that is just the parts I been able to identify. Well, last week old Frankenstein finally died. I put a new battery in it, nothing, a new fuse, still nothing. It was old when I bought it, and now it is just worn out.
But our inheritance in heaven will never wear out.
You will not need health insurance because you will not wear out.
But our inheritance is not only imperishable.
Second, Peter said it is undefiled.
Second, Peter said it is undefiled.
Heaven will be a place that is undefiled because there will be no sin.
Hilary of Arles: An incorruptible inheritance must be an infinite one, since everything finite is corruptible. The inheritance of the first Adam was corrupted by sin, but the inheritance of the second Adam can never be touched by the stain of sin.
Can you imagine a place where they is no sin. No sorrow, no pain, no suffering, no Coronavirus, no death.
The news there will not have the number of the people infected or that have dies from the virus. They we will not have to wear mask, and wash our hands for 20 seconds.
Why, Because...
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But heaven will have no sin.
Not only will heaven be imperishable and undefiled.
Third, Peter said it is unfading.
Third, Peter said it is unfading.
Peter reminds us that heaven will never fade.
Unlike flowers you buy that only last a few days, the joys of heaven will never fade.
Bede the Venerable, a mock from the seventh century wrote, “Our inheritance is imperishable because it is a heavenly life which neither age nor illness nor death nor any plague can touch. It is undefiled because no unclean person can enter into it. It is unfading, because the heavenly blessings are such that even after long enjoyment of them the blessed never grow tired, whereas those who live in earthly luxury eventually have their fill of it and turn away from it.”
Finally, Peter said it is kept in heaven for us.
Finally, Peter said it is kept in heaven for us.
The way Peter wrote this phrase he use a perfect passive participle which indicates a completed past activity by God with the result that are still continuing in the present: God himself has stored up or reserved this inheritance in heaven for us as believers and it continues to be on reserve waiting for us.
In the middle of this pandemic, we need to focus of heaven. As we prepare to close this time together here these words of Jesus.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
So we have this hope waiting for us, but what about here and now.
Well Peter tells us that we can have joy now in spite of the sufferings in this life. Listen to Peter
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.
I love what Athanasius a church father said, “Because the saints saw that the divine fire would cleanse them and benefit them, they did not shrink back from or get discouraged by the trials which they faced. Rather than being hurt by what they went through, they grew and were made better, shining like gold that has been refined in a fire”
Those words remind me of the final words of Bishop Latimer, who refused to recant and turn again to the pope. He and Christian were sentence to death by burning at the stake. When they brought the torch and laid it at Ridley and Latimer’s feet, Latimer said, “Be of good comfort, brother Ridley, and play the man, We shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”
When Ridley saw the flames leap up, he cried with a loud voice, “Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Lord, receive my spirit!”
Latimer cried as vehemently on the other side, “O Father of heaven, receive my soul!”
Our hope is not in this world.
Our hope was captured well by Sanford Bennett as he penned these words.
1. There's a land that is fairer than day, And by faith we can see it afar; For the Father waits over the way, To prepare us a dwelling place there.
2. We shall sing on that beautiful shore The melodious songs of the blest; And our spirits shall sorrow no more Not a sigh for the blessing of rest.
Heaven is waiting for you, and it is well worth waiting for.