Our Anchoring Hope

1 Peter 1:3-13 Our Anchoring Hope Introduction: How should we live? The culture all around us is rapidly changing. Christendom is long gone and the Church now faces challenges that it has never faced in it’s history. There are temptations to flee the culture, to fight the culture, to embrace the culture…what are we to do? As God’s people, how are we to live in the world; how are we to engage with society? What place does our faith have in our everyday lives? This is a question not only for the modern church but a question and an issue that God’s people have faced from the beginning of time. This is the main question that Peter tackles in his 1st epistle. Peter is writing to the church, scattered throughout, what is today modern Turkey. These Christians were undergoing persecution because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Peter refers to them as exiles, pilgrims or sojourners. This reference is not only spiritual, in the sense that they are citizens of The Kingdom of Heaven and therefore are out of place in the world, but also physical, because they are citizens of God’s kingdom, they are on a collision course with the priorities and virtues of the surrounding culture. Peter is writing to tell them how to live: to engage, love, respect, and transform the very communities and society that is bent on their demise. “The question raised for these believers is the same that we should pose for ourselves today: How can we have the power of soul in times of great stress and anxiety not just to endure the evil day, but to be joyful and to fill our lives with the fruits of righteousness, with deeds of kindness, with projects of mercy, with labors of love? How, when your life is in jeopardy, or your job, or your marriage, or your health, or your respect in the community—how can you rise up with joy and bless those who abuse you and devote yourself to labors of love? To busy yourself for love's sake takes power in the very best of circumstances. But to spend yourself in love to others when your own life is falling apart, that takes a power of soul which is utterly beyond us. If that is what we are called to do, then the power has to come from some source greater than the human soul.” -John Piper Where do we get the power to continue to live out our faith and represent God’s coming Kingdom on earth in the face of life, and opposition? 1. An Anchor of Hope (Partakers in the Divine Nature) a. Vs. 13 “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. i. Before Peter even begins to talk about their particular situation and how they are to live as “Christians” in their hostile community, he wants to anchor their hearts and minds in the most important, most powerful thing in the whole universe, in order to hold them steady, to lay a foundation to build upon, a perspective through which they are to view every situation that life, on this fallen planet, may through at them; and that is - God’s coming salvation. b. “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.” -vs.3-5 i. Peter wants this church to live in, to meditate on the fact that they are a part of a glorious hope - “a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” ii. Hope 1. We know a very different hope than the writers of the NT. We say things like I really hope that to go to Europe one day, or I really hope I don’t go bald. We talk of hope in a negative sense. (To wish very strongly that something will happen or won’t happen, although you know it is not very likely). 2. When the New Testament speaks of a Christian’s hope, it is speaking of hope, in a sense of longing for what is certain to come. - “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Do you hear how certain Peter’s words are? a. We can define hope, in the New Testament sense, as full assurance, or strong confidence that God is going to do good to us in the future. Therefore a “living hope” would be fertile, fruitful, productive hope. Living hope, is hope that has power and produces changes in life. Change in how we think, change in how we behave, change in the way we see things and how we react to them. Christian hope is a strong confidence in God which has power to produce change in how we live. 1. And that is exactly what Peter is seeking to do, he is giving them a hope to live out of. iii. What is this Hope? 1. The first thing he tells us about this hope is that it is something that they have received, not through work or money, but it is something that they have been born into by God’s mercy. a. “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”. i. Peter is pointing us to the fact that we have not just become, or attained citizenship, but that we have been born (born again) into it! The right and status is ours by the new birth. ii. As John 1:11-13 says, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." iii. Peter tells us that this living hope is an inheritance that is: 1. Imperishable (cannot spoil) 2. Undefiled (Cannot be tainted by evil and sin), 3. Unfading (cannot wither or dry up), Kept (or reserved) in heaven for you. 4. Not only is the inheritance reserved but we ourselves are being guarded by God. a. Our hope is sure, because nothing can happen to our inheritance, it is absolutely secure. b. Isn’t this so comforting - salvation is God’s gracious gift, you can never earn it and you can never lose it. iv. What is this inheritance specifically? 1. Peter doesn’t explicitly say it here, but the inheritance that he speaks of is our ultimate glorification, the salvation of our souls, and redemption of our bodies. 2. Here’s how he puts it in his 2nd Epistle, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” -2 Peter 1:3-4 3. Other NT writers also refer to this inheritance, though Paul is the most specific about what it is: a. “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” b. “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” - Romans 8:16-17; 29-30 c. Paul also says in thais same chapter, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” i. The restoration of all things d. The inheritance of God’s people is that we share in his glory, that our earthly bodies will be transformed to be like Jesus’ glorious body. e. Let me marry two passages of scripture for you… The prophet tells us that one day the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea… Waters cover the sea?? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that when the end has finally come Christ will deliver the kingdom over to His Father that God might be all in all… Taking these two and other biblical passages together we realize that the creation and especially humanity is like a cup that is waiting to be filled up, filled to over flowing, with the glory of God.. this is what is coming for those in Christ! f. Scripture doesn’t describe in great detail what this looks like, but it cannot be less than life as we now know it now, No, it is more, much more! This corruptible will put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality! g. C.S. Lewis writes, “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward … promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.” i. I think this is often the case for us Christians - it isn’t that our desire for glory is too strong, it’s actually too weak. We don’t desire the kingdom, because we are far too easily pleased with stuff….We don’t think deeply enough, or often enough about the glory to come. If we did it would radically change our perspective in the here and now. 2. Their Present Circumstance (Hope in the Divine Approval) a. Peter wants them to set their hope fully on this day of salvation in light of their circumstance. b. 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. -1 Peter 1:6-9 i. The trials and persecution that Peter's readers are experiencing are directly related to their faith in, and identity with Jesus Christ. ii. "Because of their Christian faith, they were being marginalized by their society, alienated in their relationships, and threatened with - if not experiencing- a loss of honor and socioeconomic standing" iii. "What Christians had to fear was more in the nature of social ostracism, unfriendly acts by neighbors, pressure on Christian wives from pagan husbands, masters taking it out on Christian slaves and other actions of that kind. It was sufficient, in any case, to make life uncomfortable" -Howard Marshall iv. Christians were being slandered, excluded, and marginalized. In other words, their trials and persecution were very much like our experience today. 1. But Peter tells them rather than grieving, getting depressed and discouraged by this, they should rejoice! a. Why? Because true hope leads to joy. The "rejoice" is not a continual feeling of hilarity nor a denial of the reality of pain and suffering, but an anticipatory joy experienced even now, despite the outward circumstances, because the believers know that their sufferings are only "for a little while" and their inheritance is sure and eternal." -Peter Davids 2. Not only that but Peter assures them that their trials are refining them and will result in their praise, glory, and honor when Christ is revealed! We will hear that divine approval, “Well done, good and faithful servant”. 3. “And that is enough to raise your thoughts to what may happen when the redeemed soul, beyond all hope and nearly beyond belief, learns at last that she has pleased Him whom she was created to please. There will be no room for vanity then. She will be free from the miserable illusion that it is her doing. With no taint of what we should now call self-approval she will most innocently rejoice in the thing that God has made her to be, and the moment which heals her old inferiority complex forever will also drown her pride… Perfect humility dispenses with modesty...If God is satisfied with the work, the work may be satisfied with itself.....I can imagine someone saying he dislikes my idea of heaven as a place where we are patted on the back. But proud misunderstanding is behind that dislike. In the end that Face which is the delight or the terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us either with one expression or the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame that can never be cured or disguised……To please God… to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness… to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son- it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.” -The Weight of Glory v. Peter reminds us that though we maybe slandered and persecuted, though we may lose the approval of others for the sake of our faith in Christ - we are loved and honored in the eyes of the only one in the universe that really counts. God the father looks at each of us and says, My beloved son or daughter in whom I am well pleased,” This is a status of grace, we can never earn it and we can never lose it. Not only that but all these trials that assail us are working out for our good and also for a far and exceeding eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. 3. Our Privileged Position a. 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. i. We are the envy of Prophets and Angels...we have received what they looked for, longed for, and anticipated with great hope. So don’t think poor me, think instead, wow, I am honored with this position, to be living here and now and there is more honor to come! ii. How privileged we are to be living in these times. at times, I’m sacred to death, but we have a God who raises the dead… Who knows what our almighty, wonder working, salvation bringing, all loving, all just, God might do in these days? iii. Peter Davids says, “This joy is based on the knowledge that Christ has come, that God has revealed his saving grace to them, and that they will take part in the consummated joy of God's glory and salvation at the approaching end of the age." Conclusion: 1. What Peter is saying is - If you are a Christian -If you believe the resurrection is true. If you believe that Jesus has died to save you - to redirect your eternal trajectory irrevocably toward God. If you believe that God has accepted you, for Jesus' sake, through an act of supreme grace. You are a part of the Kingdom of God! What then does that mean for your life now? It means living Hope!! a. The Kingdom of God means, a guaranteed new heavens and new earth, a healed material creation. Absolute wholeness and well being- physically, spiritually, socially, and economically.” b. That is the Kingdom of God- shalom- complete healing of all relationships in the creation. We will be reconciled to God; to nature; to one another; and to ourselves.” c. “And to the extent that that future is real to you it will change everything about how you live in the present. For example, why is it so hard to face suffering? Why is it so hard to face disability and disease? Why is it so hard to do the right thing if you know it's going to cost you money, reputation, maybe even your life? Why is it so hard to face your death of death of loved ones? -It's so hard because we think (and act, as though) this broken world is the only world were ever going to have. It's easy to feel as if this money is the only wealth we'll ever have...But if Jesus is risen, then your future is so much more beautiful, and so much more certain, than that." -Tim Keller 2. If we are having a hard time in our current circumstances, if we are easily discouraged, depressed, irritated, fearful, or anxious, Peter would ask, where is our hope? For him there is no other hope than salvation and the total restoration of all things through Jesus Christ! 3. Jonathan Edwards gives three doctrines to support the Christians “Joy” in all circumstances. a. Our “bad things” will work out for good. (Romans 8:28) b. Our “Good things” - adoption into God’s family, Justification in God’s sight, union with him - cannot be taken away. (Romans 8:1) c. Our best things - life in heaven, new heavens and the new earth, resurrection - are yet to come. (Revelation 22:1) d. Think on these truth’s that are yours in Christ, may they enable you to live out your Hope in Christ in a world without hope. e. “Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.