Our Constant Hope

We are back in 1 Peter this morning, so go ahead and open your Bibles to 1 Peter 1:3 (page 1075).

Have you ever looked forward to something only to be disappointed when it got here?

Some of you are old enough to remember sending off cereal box tops for the decoder ring or order having to wait 6-8 weeks for something you ordered from the Sears Wishbook to arrive.

I imagine all of us have had something we have saved up for—some new gadget, some new fishing pole or golf clubs or something like that, some new tool that was going to make life better, only to get it and realize it didn’t work like we thought it would.

We don’t just do this about things, though; we often think like this about life stages...If I could just get through school/get married/have a baby/get the kids out of the house/retire, then things would finally be better.

It is true that some purchases are fantastic, and some stages of life are happier than others. However, everything we have ever looked forward to lets us down at some point.

Can we be honest that, at times, following Jesus even feels like this?

We may come to Christ and think that following Jesus should make life easier on us.

Then, as we talked about last week, we find ourselves having to stand up and do the right thing when others won’t. As we seek to honor Jesus, we may find ourselves distanced from our friends and even our family.

That is the reality of living as an exile, living here on earth while a citizen of the kingdom of God.

This morning, the words Peter wrote are going to help us reorient ourselves to place our hope where it belongs.

Our hope isn’t that life is going to be easy for Jesus’s followers now; no, our constant hope is that one day, we will be with Jesus.

As we will see, there are wonderful aspects of that salvation that we experience now, but they are all just samples of what is to come.

So we have a clear sense of the context, let’s read verse 3...

Peter is giving God glory for all he has done in giving us this constant hope.

He is going to point to the future, present, and past aspects of the salvation we enjoy and look forward to.

As he honors God for his work, he is also giving us an anchor to hold onto when we find ourselves painfully aware that this world is not our home.

He begins by reminding us that for any of those who are a part of his family, our incredibly merciful God has caused us to be born again. He has given us a new birth that puts us into the family and kingdom of God and gives us this constant hope.

We see here why this hope is so sure: because it is based on the resurrection of Jesus.

Remember, there were other people in the Bible who were raised from the dead, but none of them were resurrected like Jesus. When he was resurrected, his body was transformed and would never die again.

If our hope is based on the one who will never die again, then our hope will never die as well!

That hope looks forward to the first aspect we want to look at more closely:

1) We have a future inheritance.

Read verses 4-5 with me.

This goes back to what we talked about at the first part of the sermon: although everything in our lives has let us down, worn out, or disappointed us in some way, our inheritance never will.

Look back at how Peter describes it:

Our hope, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, is that God is laying up for us an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

Imperishable means that it cannot get damaged or marred. Our inheritance isn’t like those beautiful strawberries you bought the other day that are now mushy and hairy in the back of the fridge somewhere.

Undefiled means that it will be perfectly pure, without any stain or trace of sin.

Unfading means that it will not wither; that it’s beauty or luster will never fade away.

That is what is waiting for us when we get to heaven! An inheritance that will never get dinged, dented, scratched, rusty, or disappointing.

God is keeping it safe in heaven with him right now, and one day, you will get to enjoy it forever.

How do we know we will get there?

Look at verse 5.

“You are being guarded by God’s power.” - Let that sink in for a minute. If you are in Christ today, then you are right now under God’s watch. His power is going to keep you safe until you get home.

Peter starts hitting at an interesting tension here, doesn’t he?

God is preserving you and will bring you safely home to the salvation that he has prepared for you.

“But, if I came to Christ, aren’t I already saved?”

You have been saved from the power of sin, so you no longer have to obey it and the punishment for your sin has been paid by Christ.

However, you still live in the presence of sin. It is still all around you, and you still fall into the pattern of sin.

That’s why living as an exile is so hard—until we get home with Jesus, we are faced with sin all around us and temptation to fall into it ourselves. We get exhausted as we

The salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of time, our inheritance, is that moment when every stain of sin is removed and we enjoy an inheritance with God that cannot be destroyed, damaged, dinged, or darkened!

This is the “already but not yet” salvation we have. We already enjoy many of the benefits of salvation, but there are more coming!

Our inheritance is kept in heaven, and we are guarded by God, so our hope is certain, not wishful thinking.

Because of this certain hope...

2) We have a present joy.

Pick back up in verses 6-9...

Here is where things get really interesting. This is where you really start seeing that life as an exile looks different than life without Christ.

Sure, our hope in heaven is more sure than those who have some vague notion of what the afterlife might be like, but here’s where we really start digging in.

First, we notice that we are supposed to be living lives marked by joy right now.

Our joy is in anticipation of something that hasn’t happened yet, not over something we have already obtained in its fullness.

In fact, as exiles who aren’t home yet, it gets even more interesting.

Peter says that we have joy now in spite of the fact that we may be suffering grief.

In the Christian life, joy and grief can coexist!

This doesn’t mean that we just go around with a fake smile, pretending everything is okay when it isn’t.

Instead, this joy is so deeply rooted in our hearts that it is still present, even when we grieve and suffer.

There’s some great examples for us in the book of Acts.

We see this kind of joy in the apostles in Acts 5, where they were arrested, tried, threatened, and beaten for preaching about Jesus.

Acts 5:41 CSB

Then they went out from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully on behalf of the Name.

They suffered physical pain, shame, humiliation, and much more, but it couldn’t take their joy away because they realized that they were being identified with Jesus while they suffered.

We see hints of it in Stephen’s vision into heaven before he is killed in Acts 7.

One of my favorite examples is in Acts 16.

Paul and Silas had been preaching in Philippi, and they ended up getting arrested, beaten, and thrown into the jail for the night.

So, how do they respond?

Acts 16:25 CSB

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

I don’t know about you, but my first reaction after I have endured something I don’t like isn’t usually to host an all-night hymn sing.

However, their hearts were so full of joy that they could continue to sing in light of the pain they were experiencing.

So, back to Peter, Christians who live as exiles can find that joy over the inheritance God has promised tempers the sting of suffering on Jesus’s behalf.

We see in verse 7 that suffering for Christ has a purpose.

Serving Jesus as exiles demonstrates the depth of faith in our hearts. Not only that, it refines our faith and makes it even stronger.

You can see this in the lives of some of the folks in this very room. There are pains that folks here have endured that would break most people, and yet, God in his infinite mercy has worked to strengthen their faith, and their suffering has proven God’s goodness to the world.

When he returns, our tested faith will prove to the world that Jesus is worthy of praise, honor, and glory.

See, I don’t think this is talking about praising, honoring, or glorifying us.

Right now, people may think we are out of our minds because we serve Jesus when it is hard.

However, when he returns, they will see that he really is worthy of the glory and honor and praise we have tried to show during this life.

Right now, our faith is in someone we haven’t seen, which is what verse 8 reminds us of.

By the way, does this sound familiar? If you were with us when we went through John, do you remember what Jesus said to Thomas when he confessed that he believed in him?

John 20:29 CSB

Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

You are a part of those who are blessed now because you believe in Jesus without having seen him.

You love him, you trust him, and he is the source of your joy.

By the way, did you notice how Peter described our joy?

The joy that is found in Jesus, that lasts even as we suffer grief in various trials for him, isn’t just a measly morsel.

Instead, it is so rich it is indescribable! Words fail us when we try to explain the joy that Jesus gives, even when things are difficult and upsetting.

That’s a joy that sings in prison and rejoices because we were counted worthy to suffer with Jesus.

Not only that, but this joy is already giving us a taste of the glory that will come when Jesus returns and we see him as he is and all our suffering is over and his kingdom is brought to its fullest extent on earth.

Think about the moment in your life where you were most aware of what God was doing. You read the Bible, and the words leapt off the page at you. You could pray for a while and stay completely focused, you were growing bolder in talking about Jesus and doing what he said—think about the joy that you felt in those days.

Now, try to imagine what it would feel like to be in that place for a full year…now a decade…now a century…now a millennia…what about forever?

That’s part of what our inheritance is.

Our joy comes from the fact that we will one day receive that fully, and we are even getting tastes of it now. That’s what verse 9 is talking about.

As we look to our future inheritance, that hope fills us with joy in the present.

There is one more beautiful reality Peter outlines about our hope.

It didn’t come out of nowhere, and it isn’t simply the latest theory our self-help craze that is filling the blogs and podcasts.

No; looking back, we see that...

3) We have a past heritage.

Peter is reminding these scattered, suffering exiles that the salvation they are holding out isn’t an idea that came out of nowhere.

No; this had been promised for over 1,000 years.

Read verses 10-12.

Many of us have been raised in church, and it is so easy for us to take these truths for granted.

Listen to what Peter is saying here.

The prophets—the guys in the Old Testament whose books you skip over because it is so much doom and gloom—they were given glimpses in the promises God was making.

They prayed and fasted and searched for answers about what these prophecies about Jesus and his sufferings and his resurrection would mean.

However, God didn’t tell them. Instead, he helped them see that they were serving generations that would come later.

The gospel you have heard—that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, was raised three days later, and now rules and reigns over creation—is what the Holy Spirit was talking about through them.

They didn’t get to see it in their lifetimes. Instead, these things were revealed to Jews first, then to Gentiles like us.

These Jewish prophets were serving future generations of Gentile believers in Asia Minor in the 60s AD and in Christiansburg VA in 2022.

This salvation and hope that are found in Christ is built on a heritage of prophets and followers of the one true God who prayed and longed to see these promises fulfilled.

Now, we have the privilege of not only knowing these truths but living lives that honor Jesus in light of them.

In case you aren’t convinced that this is all that incredible, check out that last phrase in verse 12...

You know, angels? The ones who are these powerful beings God created to be his servants who hang out in his presence ever since he made them at the beginning of time?

You know, the ones who fight for his people and purposes on earth, who see the train of his robe filling the temple of heaven and declare his holiness so loudly that the doorposts of the temple are shaken when they talk?

There are aspects of the salvation we enjoy that even angels wish they understood better.

Peter doesn’t tell us what specifically they would want to know, but it should give us an idea of just how incredible this hope it.

We have a sure and certain hope that one day, when I die or when Jesus comes back, we will receive an inheritance unlike anything we have ever seen before.

That fills us with an indescribable joy, even in the midst of the grief we suffer as we go through various trials for Christ.

We don’t see him yet, but we believe him, we love him, and our faith in him is being refined all the time.

All of this builds on this incredible heritage we have that goes all the way back to the prophets who longed to understand the salvation God was promising us—a salvation that even angels wish they understood better.