Big Idea: As Children of God we have a hope, now and in the future.

The most important message we should be reminded of , each and every day, and proclaimed to he whole world is the message of  HOPE. Hope that is only found in Jesus Christ.

Background and Setting of Peter’s Letter

When the city of Rome burned, the Romans believed that their emperor, Nero, had set the city on fire, probably because of his incredible lust to build. In order to build more, he had to destroy what already existed.

The Romans were totally devastated. Their culture, in a sense, went down with the city. All the religious elements of their life were destroyed—their great temples, shrines, and even their household idols were burned up. This had great religious implications because it made them believe that their deities had been unable to deal with the destructive fire and were also victims of it.

The people were homeless and hopeless. Many had died. Their bitter resentment was severe, so Nero realized that he had to redirect the hostility.

The emperor’s chosen scapegoat was the Christians, who were already hated because they were associated with Jews, and because they were seen as being hostile to the Roman culture.

Nero spread the word quickly that the Christians had set the fires.

As a result, a vicious persecution against Christians began, and soon spread throughout the Roman Empire, touching places N of the Taurus mountains, like Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia (1:1), and impacting the Christians, whom Peter calls “strangers.”

They needed spiritual strengthening because of their sufferings. They needed hope!

Thus the Apostle Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote this epistle to strengthen them.

! 1.     We are Chosen for a purpose.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:

Peter, the Apostle of Jesus Christ

                   - His Authority

To God’s Elect

-         Gentiles

-         Their Status

·        Strangers/Sojourners/Pilgrims - Dispersion

·        Scattered - Dispersion

Peter reminds them of their Covenant relationship with God /Trinity:

-         Chosen by God

-         Sanctified by the Holy Spirit

-         Purified by the blood of Jesus

-         Set apart for Service.

Sprinkling is a sign of setting one apart for service – Aaron as priest.

Spurgeon writes: Whomever the Father elects the Spirit sanctifies unto obedience, and the Son redeems and sprinkles with His blood.

Barclay writes: It is the purpose of God that the Christian is called. It is by the work of the Holy Spirit that his life is hallowed towards God. It is sprinkling of the blood of Christ that he is cleansed from past sin and dedicated to future obedience to God

Grace and peace be yours in abundance. Roms 5:1-5

1.    Grace – Free favor of God

2.    Peace – The result of Grace

Because of the work of salvation we can have peace. With out the Grace of God, you will never know the peace of God.

2.   Christ, the Foundation of Hope!

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1.     Praise or Blessed

2.     Great Mercy

3.     New Birth

4.     Living Hope – not a dead hope

5.     Through Christ

the key message of Peter to us all is the message of a Living HOPE given to us through Jesus Christ.

3.   This World has a Hopeless Future. Why? It is hopeless because it rests on man’s ability and not on Christ.

Some years ago a hydroelectric dam was to be built across a valley in New England. The people in a small town in the valley were to be relocated because the town itself would be submerged when the dam was finished. During the time between the decision to build the dam and its completion, the buildings in the town, which previously were kept up nicely, fell into disrepair. Instead of being a pretty little town, it became an eyesore.

Why did this happen? The answer is simple. As one resident said, “Where there is no faith in the future, there is no work in the present.”

The world has a dead hope. We build space stations to escape to outer space, we take drugs to escape to inner space. Secular psychology has failed

Look at the local paper and you can read stories of hopeless: Aids, War, Sexual immorality, child abuse .As Job 11:20 But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and escape will elude them; their hope will become a dying gasp

Eph 2: 12..without hope and without God in the world.

The world puts its hope in things which bring no hope: wealth, intelligence, possessions, in a leader, in a job… Illustration from scripture turn to

Luke 12:16-21 The Parable of the Rich Fool

And he (Jesus) told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' 18"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." ' 20"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'  21"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

o       God gave him a good crop – he did not thank him

o       Astute businessman – he sees needs bigger barns.

o       So he plans for the future – Without God

o       So he can take it easy later – False hope

4.   Our Inheritance is kept for us by God. Verses 4,5

4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time

Our inheritance is one of: Life, righteousness, joy, peace, perfection, God’s presence, Christ’s glorious companionship, rewards, and all else God has planned.(v. 5; cf. Matt. 25:34; Acts 26:18; Eph. 1:11; Col. 1:12; Heb. 9:15; also Pss. 16:5; 23; 26; 72; Lam. 3:24

And this inheritance has some lasting qualities:

‘never perish’:. The inheritance is not subject to passing away, nor liable to decay. The word was used in secular Greek of something that was unravaged by an invading army (cf. Matt. 6:19–21).

‘never spoil’: This word means unpolluted, unstained with evil. The undefiled inheritance of the Christian is in marked contrast to an earthly inheritance, all of which is corrupted and defiled.

‘does not fade away.’ “Fading” was often used of flowers that wither and decay. Though earthly inheritances eventually fade away, the eternal inheritance of a Christian has no decaying elements.

And why it cannot perish, spoil or fade away? Because God guarantees it.

kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time

This inheritance is ‘kept in heaven for you’

‘through faith’:. The Christian’s response to God’s election and the Spirit’s conviction is faith, but even faith is empowered by God  and through this faith we are …

‘shielded by God’s power’: Supreme power, omniscience, omnipotence, and sovereignty, not only keep the inheritance (v. 4), but also keep the believer secure. No one can steal the Christian’s treasure, and no one can disqualify him from receiving it. See notes on Rom. 8:31–39.

‘until the coming of the salvation…’: One day we will see it all.

5.   This is why we can rejoice in trials. Our trying experiences today are preparing us for glory tomorrow. Verses 6,7

6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

This explains the presence of trials in our lives: they are some of God’s tools and textbooks in the school of Christian experience. There four points I would like to make concerning trials:

·        Trials meet needs, they are not wasted.

The phrase “though now” indicates that there are special times when God knows that we need to go through trials.

Sometimes trials discipline us when we have disobeyed God’s will (Ps. 119:67).

At other times, trials prepare us for spiritual growth, or even help to prevent us from sinning (2 Cor. 12:1–9).

We do not always know the need being met, but we can trust God to know and to do what is best.

! ·        Trials are varied and for a Season.

Peter used the words “all kinds,” which literally means, “variegated, many-colored.” He used the same word to describe God’s grace in 1 Peter 4:10. 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.

No matter what “color” our day may be—a “blue” Monday or a “gray” Tuesday—God has grace sufficient to meet the need.

·        Trials are not easy. Peter did not suggest that we take a careless attitude toward trials, because this would be deceitful. Trials produce what he called “grief” The word means, “to experience pain.”

It is used to describe our Lord in Gethsemane (Matt. 26:37), and the sorrow of saints at the death of loved ones (1 Thes. 4:13).

To deny that our trials are painful is to make them even worse. Christians must accept the fact that there are difficult experiences in life and not put on a brave front just to appear “more spiritual.”

·        Trials are controlled by God. They do not last forever; they are “for a little while.” When God permits His children to go through the furnace, He keeps His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat.

The important thing, when trials come, is that we learn the lesson God wants to teach us.

Peter illustrated this truth by referring to the goldsmith. No goldsmith would deliberately waste the precious ore. He would put it into the smelting furnace long enough to remove the cheap impurities; then he would pour it out and make from it a beautiful article of, value. It has been said that the Eastern goldsmith kept the metal in the furnace until he could see his face reflected in it. So our Lord keeps us in the furnace of suffering until we reflect the glory and beauty of Jesus Christ.

When we see Jesus Christ, we will bring “praise and honor and glory” to Him if we have been faithful in the sufferings of this life (see Rom. 8:17–18).

This explains why Peter associated rejoicing with suffering. While we may not be able to rejoice in our trials, we can rejoice as we look ahead.

The word “this” in 1 Peter 1:6 (nasb) refers back to the “salvation” (the return of Christ) mentioned in 1 Peter 1:5.

The patriarch Job went through many painful trials, all of them with God’s approval; and yet he understood somewhat of this truth about the refiner’s fire. “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). And he did!

It is encouraging to know that we are born for glory, kept for glory, and being prepared for glory. But the fourth discovery Peter shared with his readers is perhaps the most exciting of all.

6.   It is by faith and through faith by which we can rejoice. Verses 8,9

[8] Though you have not seen him, you love him;

and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,

[9] for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

The Christian philosophy of life is not “pie in the sky by and by.” It carries with it a present dynamic that can turn suffering into glory today.

Peter gave four directions for enjoying the glory now, even in the midst of trials: we are to …

1)    Love Christ (v. 8).

Our love for Christ is not based on physical sight.

It is based on our spiritual relationship with Him and what the Word has taught us about Him.

2)    Trust Christ (v. 8). We must live by faith and not by sight.

An elderly lady fell and broke her leg while attending a summer Bible conference. She said to the pastor who visited her, “I know the Lord led me to the conference. But I don’t see why this had to happen! And I don’t see any good coming from it.” Wisely, the pastor replied, “Romans 8:28 doesn’t say that we see all things working together for good. It says that we know it.”

Faith means surrendering all to God and obeying His Word in spite of circumstances and consequences. Love and faith go together: when you love someone, you trust him. And faith and love together help to strengthen hope; for where you find faith and love, you will find confidence for the future.

3)    Rejoice in Christ (v. 8). You may not be able to rejoice over the circumstances, but you can rejoice in them by centering your heart and mind on Jesus Christ.

·        Abraham discovered new truths about the Lord on the mount where he offered his son (Gen. 22).

·        The three Hebrew children discovered His nearness when they went through the fiery furnace (Dan. 3).

·        Paul learned the sufficiency of His grace when he suffered with a thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12).

Note that the joy He produces is “an inexpressible and glorious joy.” This joy is so deep and so wonderful that we cannot even express it.

4)    Receive from Christ (vv. 9). “Believing... receiving” is God’s way of meeting our needs. If we love Him, trust Him, and rejoice in Him, then we can receive from Him all that we need to turn trials into triumphs.

In other words, we can experience today some of that future glory.

Charles Spurgeon used to say, “Little faith will take your soul to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your soul.”

It is not enough that we long for heaven during times of suffering, for anybody can do that. What Peter urged his readers to do was exercise love, faith, and rejoicing, so that they might experience some of the glory of heaven in the midst of suffering now.

The amazing thing is that this “salvation” we are awaiting—the return of Christ—was a part of God’s great plan for us from eternity.

!! Conclusion: How then should we live – live as children of HOPE.

Ephesians 2:11-13 -

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)-- 12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

We were lost and without hope. But God, who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ. Paul writes to gentile believers who where without hope and a future, but their hope came through Christ.

We have a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life.

Titus 1:2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,

We are told to …put the hope of salvation as a helmet. A helmet protects our head from injury. Hope protects our mind from the hopelessness of this world.

1 Thes. 5:8 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

Hope is an anchor in life’s storms. Hebrews 6:19. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,

One commentator put it this way…

“The ship firmly anchored is safe from idle drifting. It’s position and safety is secure. So hope is a stabilizing force for the Christian. Hope forms an anchor for the whole life. The person with a living hope has a steady anchor in all he/she does. And there is something more: Hope “enters the inner sanctuary” The imagery takes us back to the Tabernacle, with it’s “curtain” shutting off the most Holy Place. That little room symbolized the very presence of God, but ordinary people were not allowed to enter it.

But HOPE can!

The Christian Hope is not exhausted by what it sees of earthly impossibilities. It reaches into the very presence of God.”

Let your hope in Christ be your anchor in life.

Share the message of hope to all.

For us as a church: Let the message of hope in Christ be first in everything. Without this message there is: no healing. no mending of brokenness. No wholeness. No power. No maturity. No faith, No strength in trials. No Future. No ministry.

A story of hope:

She came every day to the hospital to visit her little five-year-old son who was dying of the painful disease lung cancer.

One morning, before the mother got there, a nurse heard the little boy saying, "I hear the bells! I hear the bells! They're ringing!" Over and over that morning nurses and staff heard him.

When the mother arrived she asked one of the nurses how her son had been that day, and the nurse replied, "Oh, he's hallucinating today--it's probably the medication, but he's not making any sense. He keeps on saying he hears bells."

Then that beautiful mother's face came alive with understanding, and she shook her finger at the nurse and said, "You listen to me. He is not hallucinating and he's not out of his head because of any medicine. I told him weeks ago that when the pain in his chest got bad and it was hard to breathe, it meant he was going to leave us. It meant he was going to go to heaven--and that when the pain got really bad he was to look up into the corner of his room--towards heaven--and listen for the bells of heaven-because they'd be ringing for him!" With that, she marched down that hall, swept into her little son's room, swooped him out of his bed, and rocked him in her arms until the sounds of ringing bells were only quiet echoes, and he was gone.

What a hope this story illustrates for us. If you are without hope to today you can receive it, by just putting your trust in Jesus Christ. This Jesus loves you with an everlasting love and he wants you to have eternal life. Don’t hesitate; don’t walk out of this building today until you put your faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ.  Let us pray.