Gifts of Hope

Intro:

Today is Naomi’s 10th birthday… so that means after our evening service, we will probably go home and have some cake, a little bit of ice cream and Naomi will be able to open her birthday gifts.

As parents there are a couple of reasons that we give gifts to our children… First of all we give gifts to our children because we love them, and we want to show them in a real, visible way, our love.

Secondly, we give gifts to our children because we get pleasure from seeing their happiness in getting the gifts… and the pleasure of watching them try to open the gifts that are wrapped with whole roles of duct tape...

But even if we didn’t have any gifts to give to our children, if we’re in a right relationship with them, they would love us anyway, because the love of a child for a parent isn’t (or at least shouldn’t be) based on what material gifts they receive from the parent—it’s based on the love the parent shows the child… If a parent has to “buy” the love of their child by giving them things, something is wrong in that relationship.

Lets compare that to our love for God… our love for God should not be solely based on what we can get from Him—rather, as we recognize who He is, the Creator of the universe, and what He has done, given us life and made us the stewards of His creation, we should love Him and worship Him for that, even if He never did anything more for us.

But as we look at I Peter 1:3-5 this morning, we see that, just as we earthly parents take delight in giving gifts to our children, so God delights in giving gifts to His children as well… Lets look at this passage together… (Read vv. 1-5)

Meat:

Gifts from God:

There are 3 Gifts of hope that I want to share with you, from this passage, this morning… and the first gift is…

1. Our Salvation

1 Peter 1:3 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

Peter says “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,”… The word translated as “blessed” comes from the same Greek word that we get our English word “eulogy” from… It means to praise something or someone.

Peter is praising God for the salvation that is offered to us through the death, burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ… Our Salvation is…

1.1 Through Christ Alone

Eph. 2:8-9 “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

We cannot earn our Salvation, we cannot buy our Salvation and there is no one else that can purchase or pay for our Salvation on our behalf… No one, except Jesus Christ…

Peter made this very clear to the Sanhedrin (which was basically the Supreme Court of the Jewish people)… Turn to Acts Chapter 4… Shortly after Pentecost, Peter and John were involved with the healing of a Lame man...

After they healed this lame man, Peter continued to preach about how Jesus was the Prophet that the writers of the Old Testament had said would come… and upon hearing this message the Priests and the Sadducee’s were greatly offended…

And what do godly people do when somebody offends them…??? They call the police… And so, After Peter and John had been arrested, or at least detained for the night, the next morning the Sanhedrin asked them…

“By what power or by what name have you done this?”

And Peter, not willing to pass up an opportunity… and as we mentioned last week, he was a very straight and to the point type of fella, responded this way…

Acts 4:8-12 “8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: 9 If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, 10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, (Remember Peter didn’t care what people thought of him, so he just basically called out and pointed his finger at these leaders)... whom you crucified … whom God raised from the dead, (Another slam on the religious snobs… “You crucified him, but God raised Him up to prove that you were wrong about Him the whole time)… by Him this man stands here before you whole. 11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.””… That name, once again, is Jesus Christ!

The Gift of our Salvation is Through Christ Alone!

It is also…

1.2 A Demonstration of God’s Mercy

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

Mercy can be defined as: God not giving us something that we deserve. More specifically, not giving us the punishment that we deserve.

A mother once approached Napoleon seeking a pardon for her son

The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded death

"But I don’t ask for justice," the mother explained

"I plead for mercy."

"But your son does not deserve mercy," Napoleon replied.

"Sir," the woman cried, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for."

"Well, then," the emperor said, "I will have mercy."

And he spared the woman’s son.

Salvation comes to each sinner not because we deserve it… but because of mercy.

We deserve to be eternally separated from God… and yet because of His abundant mercy, we have a living hope that is our key to Heaven…

Yes, His mercy is “Abundant”… and we should be very thankful that it is, because our sins are abundant as well.

The Second Gift that I want you to see is…

2. Our Inheritance

1 Peter 1:4 “4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,”

Usually when someone passes away, they leave an inheritance to their family, maybe part of it goes to some friends, and some may get left to the church…

It was reported that between the years of 1990 and 2010, the baby boomer generation received an estimated $16 trillion dollars of inheritances from the previous generation.

These inheritances consist of money, property, vehicles, antiques, goofy looking plates, or other dish and silverware… but the problem with these inheritances is… they are all temporary…

The money gets spent, the property gets overgrown, the vehicles rust… the goofy looking plates end up at good-will when someone gets tired of looking at them…

But that is not the case with the inheritance that we have in Christ… We are included in Christ’s last will and testament… in John 14 Christ tells us a little bit about what is included in this inheritance...

John 14:1–3 NKJV

1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

Peter, talking about this inheritance, first of all says, that it is incorruptible…

2.1 It is Permanent

It will last for eternity. It will never decay, rust, spoil… it will never be stolen or affected by inflation or depression. It will never diminish in value. It will never run out…

Peter also says that this inheritance is “undefiled”… meaning…

2.2 It is Pure

It is pure in two different ways… first of all it is without defect, there are no flaws within this inheritance.

Melissa and I enjoy watching a couple of the gold recovery shows that are on T.V… After the gold is collected and separated from all the dirt and rocks, it goes through a refining process.

A gold refinery receives the raw material and re-liquefies the metal in a hot furnace, then adds various chemicals to the molten substance to separate the gold from the other metals.

A sample of the gold is used to measure the purity of the gold content, usually found to be 99.9% pure… They can never get 100% of the impurities out…

Not so with Christ… the inheritance that we receive through Him, is 100% perfect! It is undefiled, it is completely without flaws… it is pure…

The second way in which this inheritance is pure or undefiled, is the fact that it does not defile the one who receives it… So many inheritances of today, ruin the one who receives it… Why?? Because those inheritances enable sinful living… and it may seem like a good time at the moment, but when the money runs out and all of your so-called “friends” are gone, you may just find yourself eating out of pig trough… Just ask the Prodigal Son… (Luke 15)

This is an extreme example of how an earthly inheritance can defile a person… and I realize that not everyone is going to squander away every last dime they receive, like the Prodigal son did…

But I am also reminded of the account of the Rich Man and Lazarus … If you read the account in (Luke 16) you will see that the Rich Man’s faith was in his bank account and that Lazarus’ faith was in God. The Rich Man was able to live a lavish lifestyle, while Lazarus ate the scraps off the ground.

But when each one of these men passed away, it was Lazarus who was living in the comfort of his Heavenly inheritance, while the Rich Man was spending his eternity in Hell.

Both of these accounts are great reminders of the fact that… “This life will soon be past… only what is done for Christ, will last”

Our inheritance in Christ is Permanent, it is Pure and…

2.3 It is Pleasurable

Peter says that it “does not fade away...” … This speaks of the unending delights of our heavenly inheritance.

There are many people today who think that Heaven will be boring… like children and teenagers, two weeks into summer vacation… “I’m Bored, there’s nothing to do…”

There are some who view heaven the same way that Mark Twain’s fictional character, Huck Finn views Heaven… Huck Finn said that he thought heaven was a place where a person would "go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever."

I am sure that this is the same attitude that led Mark Twain to also write… “"I'll take Heaven for the climate and Hell for the society."”

Heaven will be a lot of things — beautiful, gorgeous, magnificent, marvelous, amazing, fantastic, surprising, radiant! But not boring! That notion is one of Satan's big lies… Satan will do anything he can to discourage saints and sinners alike from becoming too enthusiastic about what God has in store for those who love him.

On top of the people, the places, or the vast array of things to do in Heaven, there is one thing that will guarantee that it is never boring… and that is the presence of Almighty God…

For those who know Him here and love Him now, being with Him could never be a waste of time or anything less than the most exciting, exhilarating experience imaginable! God's presence is what makes heaven, heaven!

So often when one obtains an inheritance in this world it disappoints and brings more troubles than delights. But the Divine inheritance of the saint is nothing but pure delight that lasts forever… and nothing that the world offers even comes close in comparison…

The end of v.4 says that this inheritance is… “reserved in heaven for you,” … meaning it is for believers, it is for the ones who have accepted Christ as their personal Savior. We know this, because as we looked at last week, that is who Peter is writing this letter to.

So we have the gift of our Salvation, we have the gift of our Inheritance and finally… we have the gift of…

3. Our Protection

1 Peter 1:5 “5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

This speaks of the protection of us as believers. Our Salvation is protected, Our inheritance is protected, and so are we… No insurance policy on this earth can protect like this protection.

The word “Kept” here in v.5 is a military term and it means that we are…

3.1 Surrounded 24/7

Like a Garrison or a large group of military troops that surround a city to protect it from the enemy… we as followers of Christ, are surrounded and protected 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (or 366 during leap years)…

What are we surrounded by???

3.2 The Power of God

This protection is not limited by the power of man, but it is the power of God, a power than no created thing can overcome. Thus our salvation and our inheritance is 100% secure.

Romans 8:31 “31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Romans 8:38-39 “38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

And this protection is…

3.3 Obtained by Faith

The obtaining of this protection is not by works but by faith in Christ as Savior

This is how we obtain this great salvation, this great inheritance and this great protection.

By Grace, Through Faith, In Christ…

Warren Wiersbe says this… “Our faith in Christ has so united us to Him that His power now guards us and guides us. We are not kept by our strength, but by His faithfulness. How long will He guard us? Until Jesus Christ returns and we will share in the full revelation of His great salvation.”

Closing:

Have you put your faith in Christ this morning?

Have you accepted His free gift of Salvation?

If so, then you too have a heavenly inheritance and the power of God protecting you.

Through the saving power of Jesus Christ we have been given eternal life. No matter what people do to you, no matter how hard they try, no one can take your salvation from you and Heaven is a place that will never fade away or go away. God tells us that He will make sure that His children will get to Heaven safely.

Are you a child of God?

Prayer: