1 Peter - Salvation, Trials and Hope

[Introduction]

Last week Larry had a great message from Romans on not conforming to the way of the world but transforming to live more like Christ. And that is done by the power of God. I wanted to start walking through 1 Peter today. We’re going to focus on 1 Peter 1:1-12.

The book was written by the apostle Peter and it was a letter written to the Christians living in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, which were Roman provinces in what is now Turkey.

The purpose for Peter writing this letter was to encourage the Christians. They were going through trials and persecution from others in the land they were living. They were going through trials because of their Faith. So Peter needs to give them encouragement and remind them that as Christians they are foreigners in the land because of the way that they live. And this same letter that went out to them applies to our lives as well. Because the more we are transformed by the power of Christ, the more we become foreigners where we live. Now for us we don’t have to go through nearly the types of persecution Christians did in that area and at that time. Regardless of the level of trials we go through, though, we must cling to the Good News of Christ that we believe in, to live boldly and persevere. This not only helps us with the trials we go through, but also helps us encourage other brothers and sisters in Christ as they go through their trials.

[Prayer]

[Body]

Let’s go through these verses now, 1 Peter 1:1-12

1 Peter 1:1–12 NLT

This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace. All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward. They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.

Verses 1-2 is the greetings, we are going to focus on verses 3-12.

What’s interesting is verses 3-12 in Greek are comprised from one long complex sentence. However these verses can be broken down into 3 main sections. Before we break down these sections, one thing to think about as we go through them, is that there is not the typical response that we may feel inclined to give when people go through trials. There is no pity given, no sorry’s. And typically when there’s no pity given in life, there’s the message on the other end of the spectrum of just “suck it up,” However, these verses do not contain that type of message either.

Let’s break down this first section, verses 3-5. Right off the bat we get the theme for this paragraph. “Praise” in this first verse is translated from the Greek word for blessed. So the theme is God is to be blessed or God is to be praised. Why? Because of the undeserving grace that falls upon us from God. From his grace we receive the free gift of salvation by believing in Christ. He has given us new birth. Peter is using verbiage here that Jesus had used when talking to Nicodemus in John chapter 3. Later on in verse 23 we read a similar passage to verses 3-5 here.

1 Peter 1:23 NLT

For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.

He emphasizes that this new life we’ve received is from God. Not just from God in the sense that although the free gift is from him, we’re the ones who chose it. No, God chose you! In the greetings Peter says “God the Father knew you and chose you long ago.” All credit for our salvation goes to him. When you think about a child being born, the child had no decisions made in the process of being born. For all of us, it just happened. That’s the same way here, except that the seed for creating this new life is from, as Peter puts it in verse 23, “the eternal, living word of God,” and we are now a part of the family of God, receiving the inheritance of salvation.

Verse 4 Peter focuses more on the inheritance that is to be received. He doesn’t focus at all on any blessings we may receive on this earth. It’s all about the inheritance of eternal life in Heaven. No amount of blessings we receive while on this earth can even compare to the inheritance we are going to receive when we pass away or when Christ returns. That is the moment of glorification and that is the day we look forward to. Many will cling to the false prosperity Gospel. Not only is it the wrong message, it’s sad to see people cling to that because in the real truth, there’s more to gain than your wildest dreams, and none of it is found on earth. And that’s what Peter is getting at here in verse 4.

In verse 5 the main point is the assurance of God’s protection. Now from other verses we know that we should expect many trials on earth, which is the case of what’s happening to the people receiving this letter. So we know that this protection Peter is talking about is not about shield from having no struggles, but a shield of protection to persevere through the struggles.

Verses John 10:27-29 go right along with verses 3-5 from Peter.

John 10:27–29 NLT

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.

God chose us, He gives the free gift of salvation, and no one or anything can cause us to be removed from His hand. As believers we have the guarantee of his protection and that we will receive the Heavenly inheritance.

Philippians 4:7 NLT

Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Sometimes we just want to know, how? How can he just give us peace and help us to persevere? Will I receive something that makes me feel good? I think we usually like things that are tangible, concrete, or something we can see to comfort us in life. But God is not dependent on anything we can see or feel. God’s peace exceeds anything we can understand. I think it goes back to last weeks message too, we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. We think and operate differently, it’s a transformation process that is by the power of God.

So the three main points from verses 3-5:

You are a part of the family of God because God chose you

We have a guaranteed inheritance in Heaven by being a part of the family of God, even though we deserve hell

By the power of God we will persevere through all life’s challenges

Considering these three things, Peter starts the next section, verses 6-9, with:

1 Peter 1:6 NLT

So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.

These trials and challenges are nothing in comparison to what we will experience on the day of glorification. And Peter continues on in verse 7 to say these trials are necessary. Our faith is being tested, when we persevere it shows our faith is genuine. There is dependence on God to protect us and enable us to persevere through life’s challenges while keeping our faith in God. When we disconnect ourselves and lean on our own understanding our life begins to crumble.

The people Peter was writing to actually had not fallen away, and we know that because he commended them for their love in Christ in verse 8.

1 Peter 1:8 NLT

You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.

We can assume the people Peter was writing to never had the chance lay their eyes on Christ, like Peter had. So we can relate to this. Although we have never seen Jesus, we believe God raised Him from the dead, and we live our life to serve Him based on that message. And because of that these people rejoiced with a glorious inexpressible joy. And that’s how we are to live, because of our faith. Because of what we know is to come. Although we have to wait for that great day, we are joyful now in the present.

Now the last section here, verses 10-12, Peter is focused on the greatness of salvation.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget to study some of the old testament, but it’s really important. All the scriptures were written for each and everyone of us. The old testament prophets didn’t know when or who was going to come as the savior to the world, they just knew that the Messiah would come. Christ is who all the prophets wanted to know about, but they only knew as much as God would reveal to them. Those in the old testament times held on to faith looking forward to the messiah that was going to come, we get to hold on to faith and learn about the Messiah that did come, who died on the cross and was raised from the dead by God. The messages from the prophets were for us to point us to Jesus.

Peter is telling the readers, this new life you have received, the suffering that is taking place, and the salvation you will receive on the day of glorification isn’t just something mankind made up and is hoping for, this is everything the prophets talked about. This is the message from God. Christ came, he was rejected by many, he suffered, and then he was glorified. We believe in Christ and what he did, because of this belief we will be rejected by the world, and we will be lifted up because of our faith in the end.

2 Corinthians 1:3 NLT

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.

No matter what we go through, we’ll persevere as long as God is our rock, and we always have infinitely more to be thankful for solely based on the message of Christ.