1 Peter: Faith in the In-Between

Exegetical Point: To encourage the churches that they have been born into a beautiful inheritance, namely salvation, though you’re being tested by trials.

Homiletical Point: To encourage the church that they have been born into a beautiful inheritance, namely salvation, though you’ll be tested by trials.

Introduction

Living in Hope of things to come, insecure hope, it may or may-not happen.

Like Inheritance: I’m one of six kids in a working class family. I can tell you now that I’m not expecting a big inheritance...

But lets imagine for a second your parents invented something awesome, like ????, and they had a big chunk of change in their bank account.

They, in their wisdom did not give you a free ride, but taught you to work hard an earn your own living, learn how to face problems without the “easy out” of fat wads of cash. But, they said, even though we’re not giving you the money now, it’s till yours. “When we die you will have a terrific inheritance waiting for you!”

Imagine then, what it would be like?

You know that there’s something great stored up for you, it’s there, it’s good, but it’s not accessible yet.

While you’re working away, trying to make ends meet, it might be tempting to resent the parents for not bailing you out at every opportunity, or buying you all the things that your heart desires.

But through it all, you’re gaining a lived experience and a tested genuineness of your ability to be able to handle what’s coming to you.

But, it still difficult living in the moment, because you know, you have a hope for what is promised, but you don’t have the fullness of it yet.

It’s there, but it’s not. You have it now, in some sense, but not yet.

It’s ready to go, and it will be amazing when it arrives, but it’s out of reach for now.

This is where Peters listener found themselves...

Recap

New Series in Peter’s letters - Last week we just skimmed the surface to see that

It’s from Peter (obviously) the Apostle who lived with Jesus and who saw the death, burial, resurrection, ascension among other things

It’s originally to the chosen exiles - Christians scattered throughout what is now modern Turkey

These Christians were chosen by God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus the Son and to belong to him.

The interpretive leap - not far. We and they are New Testament people - non-jewish people who are grafted into God’s people in Jesus.

Direct application of the words on the page to us.

Moving to Today’s Passage

Today we’re moving into the body of the letter.

Now this is a letter of encouragement and correction. So that means we should expect to face both. There will be times when the passage just pants beautiful pictures of God’s handiwork in Jesus, what you have already received, how great things are, etc.

There will also be times when Peter is really laying down clear boundaries and patterns of life that we must live by.

But Peter doesn’t do it in a domineering way. He has a beautiful way of interweaving the objective truth of Jesus into an applied theology of how we should live.

So, unlike the letters of Paul that many of us are familiar with - Paul often spends the first half of the letter working out the theological concepts, then in the second half he applies it with instructions on how to live in light of the truth. Peter on the other hand dips back and forth between the theology, then how we should respond.

The passage today divides into 4 sections that we will look at in turn. There are so many themes woven into these few verses that it is hard to draw out a primary theme to focus on.

A big trend in preaching these days is to try and distill every sermon to one big idea that you can take away. That may be helpful, but you just can’t do that every time, because...

The Bible isn’t written that way, and trying to wrangle a big idea out of each portion isn’t always faithful to the text. It’s often more complex and deep than that.

It treats you, the hearer, as dumb. As if you can’t remember more than one thing from a sermon. Now I know that we as a society are trending away from being able to hold complex ideas in mind and take a nuanced approach to learning. We’re being indoctrinated by black mirrors in our pockets to have short attention spans and shallow minds, but even so, I live in hope - call me an optimist - that we Christians might be able to devote ourselves to understanding the scriptures and train ourselves by repeated practice, to plumb the depths of God’s word to us, even when we can’t reduce it to a slogan. More on that later.

So, there's not one stand-out point here, but maybe we could summarize the whole passage by saying it’s a recap of the salvation and faith we have today before Jesus comes back. It talks about what we presently have secured in Jesus, our present trials, our present faith and joy, and the present benefit from the believers who’ve gone before us.

So, lets look at these 4 parts of the passage in turn, and see what God says to His Church through Peter.

1. Present Hope, Inheritance & Salvation (v3-5)

Firstly, Peter opens with Praise. A great place to start any time!

The New International Version Chapter 1

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Praise God the Father! Why? Why Not! In this case Peter breaks into praise because of what God has done for us. Let’s read it:

1 Peter 1:3–5 NIV

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

Wow. That’s a lot.

Let’s break it down.

There are 3 main components in here.

Its,

a) Hope

b) Inheritance

c) Salvation

a) Hope

So in God the Father’s great mercy he has birthed us (the church) INTO hope. Not just any hope, a living hope.

So he has done this out of mercy, it’s not based on merit. Not earned.

He’s caused us, the people of God to be reborn. Like phoenixes, we’re made spiritually alive from the ashes. Not like a video game where we can just have another crack at life, we messed up the last go, so give us another chance!

No, this new spiritual birth is not to wipe the slate clean, it’s a spiritual regeneration into living hope, and that regeneration come from God.

Outside Jesus there is no hope.

Now you might say that’s a bit harsh. But think about it, either people have no hope for the life beyond, there is hope in some kind of afterlife or spiritual fulfillment. But these hopes are empty, because they’re deceptions and they’re not founded on historical realities.

For Christians they have hope that is literally alive, Jesus himself who rose from the dead!

He was resurrected!

We were born into that living hope “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” 1 Pe 1:3.

Jesus resurrection secured our hopes for the future, for what God will do. Which leads us to

b) Inheritance

Regeneration brings us INTO the inheritance.

We had not right to the inheritance, but we’re spiritually reborn into the right family. Like being born a child of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos. They have unimaginable wealth, but we have no right to it now, because we’re not part of their family.

Now, as Children of God we do have a right to the family fortune.

Can’t be lost because of earthly problems, in fact, it’s not even kept here.

c) Salvation

What’s more, although we have a living hope, and an imperishable inheritance, we are also

We are being shielded by God’s power into the coming salvation.

Now some of your translations will say “until” the coming salvation, but it’s the same Greek word that appeared in verse 3 and 4 as “into”. “Until” is a fine translation, it works, but it looses some of the rhythm of these verses.

We’re born into living hope, born into imperishable inheritance, and shielded into the salvation ready to be revealed.

God’s mercy is amazing!

Into Salvation. What is salvation?

Multifaceted hope of all believers since Adam & Eve sinned

Undoing of the curse - corruption of creation

the clearing of guilt for sin and overcoming shame

The rescue from the powers of this world Satan, Sin & Death

Eternal life - in our bodies, in the presence of God.

Lives under the good government of Jesus, Son of God. Free from tyranny and in peaceful prosperity.

And much more!

All this comes through Jesus!

But then, how are we shielded until this salvation is revealed? Through faith.

(Faith: believing loyalty, trust, belief, etc)

Faith is the vehicle that God uses - signing up for his team. There’s no try-out, it’s a gracious gift to belong to him, but once in, we’re shielded.

Through faith we are shielded by God’s power.

Next, note that the Salvation is ready to be revealed?

It’s coming, it’s been prepared. God's just gotta pull the trigger and reveal it! Like the inheritance.

2. Present Trials that prove Authenticity (v6-7)

But why haven’t we experienced all this yet? Where’s the manifestation of our Hope? Where’s the inheritance? Where is our salvation revealed?

We glory in this! We thank God for it every week at church. We remind each other that we have these great blessings in Jesus Christ, but that’s our future. That’s what is to come.

For now, we have to face what’s in front of us.

Like miner who’s working on the rigs. He knows that there’s his home, there’s his family, there’s greater living on the mainland. He know’s all that is out there and waiting for him, but he must labor until his rotation is over.

We live here and now, in between the comings of Christ. And we have to face the trials and difficulties in the in between. In the now but not yet.

Peter addresses these people, he addresses us,

1 Peter 1:6–7 NIV

In all 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 the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

So there’s good news, that even though we have to live through the suffering , the trials, the grief, it has meaning. It is testing our authenticity.

It reveals our true faith.

Like Satan said of Job, anyone can love the Lord God blesses them. But the sufferings reveal that our faith is true, that we love Him and serve him even in the midst of difficulty. That our faith is not based on the promise of good things to come (though there is).

So sufferings demonstrate to God, and to us, and to the spiritual world, that our faith is real.

It is an encouragement to us! We know that our faith is not fake!

When I’m tinkering around of the car and doing maintenance, it’s all fun and games, finding the problem, fixing it etc. But until I actually get the car out on the road and test it, I can’t have confidence that I’ve actually accomplished anything.

Trials give us confidence, and reveal the authenticity of our faith.

Like fire tests gold! But our faith will even out-last gold!

Examples of trials - persecution, human condition (how we act testifies to the spiritual host)

Our experience...

Praise, Glory and Honor, for who?

Looking forward to Jesus revealed.

3. Present Joy in Receiving Salvation (v8-9)

Unlike Peter we haven’t seen Jesus… yet.

1 Peter 1:8–9 NIV

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, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

We have the records, we have the Spirit, but we don’t have Jesus physically before us.

Yet, we love him and believe in him. And we can have great joy!

Why? Because we’re receiving (presently) what our faith looks forward to - salvation.

The Gospel

“are filled” with inexpressible Joy!

If you are lacking this joy, perhaps it is time to rediscover Jesus’ salvation. Maybe we need a refresher!

4. Present revelation of the Gospel to Us (v10-12)

This salvation was essentially hidden to those who came before Peter. There were prophets who spoke about it, but they didn’t understand it fully. We are greatly blessed that it has been revealed to us!

1 Peter 1:10–12 NIV

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

Over thousands of years, God laid the groundwork for what was to come.

The prophets tried to understand it. The spirit of Christ was in them, enabling them to predict these things, but they couldn’t understand it. Kind of like people now who try to decipher the precise timing of Jesus second coming. It’s hidden from us.

We see the sufferings of Jesus predicted - I.e. Psalm 22, Isaiah Servant songs.

We see the glories predicted - Davidic son, the coming Day of the Lord, Daniel - Ancient of Days.

They were servants to us. They help us. Yes, they were serving God, but in doing so, they were serving us. Kind of like how I as a pastor am here to serve God by serving you.

The prophets of old spoke of the grace we have received.

It’s the same grace that is preached in the Gospel message

The Gospel that came via the Holy Spirit at work on earth.

We don’t need to despair that we haven’t seen Jesus, or that we face trials, we’re receiving something that was long promised. We have the mystery revealed, and soon we will have the fullness of it!

Something that even angels wish they could understand.

The proclamation of the Gospel in the HS is revelation to the world, and a gift to us all.

What do we have presently?

1. Present Hope, Inheritance & Salvation

2. Present Trials that prove Authenticity

3. Present Joy in receiving Salvation

4. Present Revelation of the Gospel to Us