Hey, I just have a few verses to read in 1 Peter.
One, three through five. It says, 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. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled And that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.
Or kept by the powers of God through faith for salvation.
Ready to be revealed in the last time. And I'll just pray for the meeting.
Dear Lord, we thank you for allowing us to coming to church today and worship you.
I pray that you'll help anyone who's in need of healing.
Or prior today. Amen.
Good morning. We are going to be in 1 Peter 1.
This morning.
As I have opportunity to have opportunity to preach. I think I want to start going through 1 Peter, it's such an important… such an important one of the epistles. I love the Bible. I love the The way that it's laid out, I love that.
In the New Testament specifically, there's all of these letters that were written to Specific groups of people to address specific needs that they have, specific questions that they have or problems that they're that they're going through.
There's letters that are written to specific people to encourage them and to give them guidance on how to How to minister, what to do when they're in these roles of leadership.
Then there's documents like 1 Peter that's written to groups of people who are dealing with specific trials and troubles and… And here we have this… this great letter that's written by Peter to to spur people on.
I was thinking about how When this was written, it's probably early to mid 60s, not 1960s, but actual 60s.
How the world is changing. There was a… There's a lot of things going on.
And… Peter, one of the original disciples, this mature, this wisen man who had now been a follower of Christ for 30-something years.
He's writing to a group of people who are struggling and he's really fulfilling the mission that Jesus had given him at the end of the book of John.
To shepherd the flock. And so here he is. He's In essence, he's coming alongside these believers who are struggling and he's wrapping his arms around them and he's trying to help them and he's trying to encourage them to keep going.
Because it's easy to forget Just… Like the Niagara Falls of information that we have compared to the amount of information that they would have had at this time.
We have… hymnals. We have anthologies of hymnals of songs that have been written for hundreds and thousands of years that we sing that are encouraging to us.
Pick a topic in Christianity and you can walk into our library, you can walk into any library, you can go on Amazon, you can find a book You could probably find 100 books on any given topic.
Some of them even more. It's just incredible the amount of resources that we have. I come from a family that is, I grew up in a Christian My parents grew up in Christian homes.
Their parents, you know, like, it just goes on and on and so there's this long line of strong, solid believers.
But in the 60s. These are probably first generation, maybe second generation Christians. There's not a lot of They don't have the same resources that we have. They don't have the same information. They don't have the same kind of heredity or however you want to say that. It's not
This is still new. And so there's a lot of confusion. There's a lot of questions.
They needed something like this at the time to help them get through what they were going through.
And so here we are, 1 Peter chapter 1. And Peter's addressing this very specific need that this group of people have.
And so we're going to just start going into it, starting in verse 1.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. My Bible says to the pilgrims of the dispersion.
Some will probably say to the elect pilgrims. In the Greek, that word elect actually is the first word there. So to the elect.
And then some translations have put it down further. Some have at first.
I don't know that it's necessarily wrong or right either way, but… I like that that word's there first.
To the elect pilgrims. Elect, chosen by God.
When we elect… elect isn't just mean like they're… like special, like Jamie and I like it TV show that we've watched.
And this woman has this woman She's on a program in the The host is like, oh, I like your hair. She's like, oh, it's genetically unattainable.
And, you know, I don't remember exactly what she said, but she's just sort of like, oh, I'm this special person because my hair.
But that's not what we're talking about here. We're not talking about this specialness.
But elect usually means elect for something, right? So you're chosen in order to do something or you're chosen for a task.
And what we're talking about here is not this special privilege that somebody, you know, certain individuals have, but It's an election in order to be conformed into the image of Christ.
And so when we read that word elect, we have to make sure that we're understanding What it means. And so who hasn't been chosen to be conformed into the image of Christ.
I would wager say it's everyone. Every single person who's ever been born has been elect to be conformed into the image of Christ.
And some people don't choose that. And how terrible it is, but how truly blessed we are to be here and to be able to say with total confidence, with total assurance.
That God has chosen us. To be conformed into the image of Christ and what a great calling that is.
So to the elect pilgrims. That word pilgrim sometimes is… Sojourner or could be a stranger. But the idea is that You're not from around here.
Whenever I used to work at the dispatch center. My friend and I invented a game. It's called You're Not From Around Here. And what we would do at the dispatch center at 2 in the morning when nobody's calling and it's winter, you have a lot of time to kill.
And so we invented this game. It's called I'm Not From Around Here, and we'd go on Google Maps, and we'd drop on the street view and you have to click around to try to figure out where you are in the world.
Enormously fun hours of entertainment. But you're starting to look at signs and it's like, that's not English, so I don't think I'm in America.
You know, it's kilometers or there's weird topography or you're trying to figure out through all the clues where exactly you are in the world.
And it's a great game. If you're ever up at 2 in the morning and you need something to do.
Click on the map and click on the map You'll have plenty of entertainment.
But that's the idea is that we're not from around here. We shouldn't blend in. We shouldn't be looking around Somebody shouldn't be able to look at us and be like, oh yeah, they're clearly… from here or whatever. There should be an element of our lives
That makes us different, that makes us stand out, that we shouldn't feel at home.
We should feel a little uncomfortable. Because we're not home. We are strangers here. We are just passing through.
This isn't the end for us. And so this is who Peter is writing to is these people who have been chosen to be conformed to the image of God.
Who are sojourning this world and he wants them to remember that.
He chose these words very specifically because this is a group of people who are struggling.
And… It's uncomfortable and they're going through trials and they're going through tribulations And he wants to remind them this isn't it.
You're not home yet. This is not where you're… This is not where your hope is. This is not where your life is.
And it's important to remember that. And so he starts this epistle in this way, and I think it's very specifically, I think those words were very specifically chosen.
And so it's to the elect pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus.
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Elect… Well, it's here now, but according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
And sanctification of the Spirit. For obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
I love that here we see all three aspects of the Trinity and their work in our salvation. God the Father.
Who, according to his foreknowledge, he's elected us. The spirit that sanctifies us.
And it's Jesus's blood that's sprinkled on us that we're in obedience to. And each aspect of the Trinity is represented here, and they're all playing this wonderful part in our salvation.
Grace and peace to you. I kind of think of that as like a hug and a kiss.
When I come home and see Jamie, that's the first thing.
She welcomes me home, hugging a kiss. Grace and peace. I was just thinking about that.
Anyway, verse 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. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away.
Reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of god Through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
I was thinking about in this section, this is one of The most concise descriptions of the work of God in saving us that I think exists in the New Testament.
I'm going to read it again, and I want you to, I'm serious, I want you to shout out Okay? Can we do this, Fred?
Just a shout out. I want you to stop me when we get to the point where it's dependent on us.
And it's not the work of God for us, okay? So just shout it out, stop.
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.
To an inheritance incorruptible And undefiled, and that does not fade away.
Reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God.
Through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Since nobody stopped me, I'm assuming That we all see this is the work of God in our lives. This is what he has done And it's an incredible work and it's a complete work. It's a fulfilled work.
What God has done plus… our ability to perform it.
God, what he's done plus our ability to live up to it or our ability to attain it.
It's what he's done. It's this incredible thing that he has accomplished And again, I don't think that it's any coincidence that this is the first thing that Peter reminds these folks of.
Is that… They're elect that they're pilgrims and that God has done this incredible thing for them.
And he wants them to keep this in the forefront of their brains.
When trials come our way, it's easy to forget. It's very easy to start looking at the pain or it's very easy to start feeling like we're alone or we're isolated or we're Maybe there's something wrong with me. Maybe I'm not doing what I ought to be doing and so God isn't
Keeping up his end of the bargain or however we think about that.
But it's important for us to keep this in the forefront of our brains.
I look around and I see a lot of people who are struggling.
We're all struggling. I struggle. All the time, there's constantly things in my life where It's just uncomfortable. It's painful. It's these circumstances that I wouldn't choose… I wouldn't choose for myself. I wouldn't choose them for my family. And yet, here we are.
Fully in them. And it's easy to look around and think, man.
I don't know that I'm doing this right. I don't think that… I don't think that I've got it.
Just, you know, I… I'm working out the math formula and I get to the bottom and the answer's wrong.
And so I'm trying to go back and see where did I mess it up.
And I think that's the wrong way of thinking. Like… Just because trials exist in our life doesn't mean that we've done something wrong. And we'll see that in a little bit.
But it's important for us to keep this idea. That this is a work that God is doing in our life.
And it's something that he is accomplishing and it's something that we participate in, but it's not up to us.
It's the power of God to save us. It's not our ability to do it.
If that makes sense. So I just want to take a look at a couple of these thoughts in here. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy.
Has begotten us. That word begotten means fathered. It's this great idea He has become our Father, he's become the thing that has given us life, and so our life is now… in him.
He has begotten us. Into a living hope.
Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To an inheritance. So that word inheritance Again, this idea of sonship, this idea of we belong to God, what he has He's given to us.
And it's a remarkable thing. To be… a child of God.
We're not children of this world anymore. That's all done with. That's all gone.
On Friday, we had… one of our marriage classes and Joel and Aaron were leading and Joel was talking about worldliness and he was talking about We did a series of kind of questions on like statistics of… how things have changed primarily from the 90s or the 50s or the 70s or whatever, and then where they are now. And some of the statistics were staggering.
Like the worldliness that has crept in to our culture where our culture It was like half of a percent or less than 1% of couples lived together in 1950 before they got married.
I don't remember what the number was, 40-something or whatever. What was it? 70% of couples nowadays lived together before they're married and like It's just this incredible In 80 years, this total shift in values and like There was many things like that, but it's this…
I don't know, it's just kind of interesting to see some of that change. But that worldliness creeps in.
And for us who are followers of Christ, that's all gone now. That old life is behind us.
We have this inheritance that was given to us. We're children of God.
He has begotten us. We have a living hope in Jesus Christ.
Who died and was raised to life. And now we have this inheritance in him And again, we need to keep that focus like right in front of our faces because it's easy to forget.
And this inheritance is incorruptible. An undefiled and does not fade away.
Incorruptible. It's not going to rust. It's not going to tarnish.
You can't tear it down. You can't break it down. It's not going to lose value.
Unable to be corrupted. Undefiled, so it's pure.
It does not fade away. It's not going to lose interest over time. It's not going to go out of style.
It's something that is going to forever be this incredible thing But here it is. It's reserved in heaven.
For you. So it's not now.
It's something that we have access to now. But we don't get the full It's reserved in heaven for you, so it's a future thing And yet it also has present-day dividends.
I was trying to think if there's something that That would be an example of that. And I was thinking about whenever Jamie and I got engaged, I gave her a ring.
And that ring was… a token of… my love for her and I gave it to her and that was sort of a a promise that… You and I are going to be And this committed covenantal relationship.
But there was about a… nine-month period, eight-month period, where we were engaged But we weren't married yet. But she had this ring that was a reminder of a reminder of this future life that we were going to have together.
But it also had a way of working itself back through from our set wedding date from the time I gave it to her, it kind of worked itself back where we weren't married, but we were committed. We were in this relationship
It's kind of the same idea here We have this commitment from God.
That there's this future date that's certain. Mark it on your calendars if you knew it.
Like, it's going to happen. But until it happens, it has this incredible way of working itself backwards through our lives And it redeems today because the salvation is sure and it's ready to be revealed.
And so we have this. Amazingly enough, it even goes into our past and redeems the past. And we have this ability to To write… relationships that are wrong and to make necessary corrections to ways that we've thought that were wrong or attitudes that we've had or behaviors that we've had. We can make amends for those.
Try to write these old, broken wrongs that we've created The power of God to redeem a life is remarkable.
There's just nothing else like it. In the whole created order.
God's love and his ability to redeem things. Truly is outstanding.
I remember thinking and being taught so often as a child that God can cannot… He cannot tolerate sin.
And so there's this eternal chasm between us and God because of our sin.
And… That was so confusing to me because I didn't really understand then how we can have a relationship with God if we're so wicked.
How can this be then? And then when Jesus came, why didn't he just immediately turn around and go back? It's like, whoa, okay.
That doesn't work. A little too close. But that's not how That's not really how it is.
We were reading in the Lord's Supper, Jesus. He came… And he he was… drawing near to him sinners and tax collectors and the people who are broken and the people who were hurting.
Those are the people he was drawing closest to himself. And we see that in God all throughout the Bible, this idea that He's not… He isn't afraid of… He's not afraid of us.
Tarnishing him or corrupting him But when he comes near to us, it's actually us who are changed.
And it's this incredible drawing near that actually makes it possible for us to have this relationship with him is because He comes all the way.
He's not standoffish at all. And it's this incredible thing.
So in verse 6, we're going to keep going here in this In this, you greatly rejoice.
So in this salvation that God has made being his elect, being his people in this incredible salvation that he's accomplished.
By the death, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this, you greatly rejoice.
Though now for a little while. If need be, you have been grieved by various trials that the genuineness of your faith Being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire.
May be found to praise. Honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see him, yet believing.
You rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. Receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls.
So in this great salvation you rejoice. Though now for a little while.
You've been grieved by various trials. I was thinking about trials. I was thinking about how there's a difference between trials and discipline.
And condemnation. And how… We'll start with condemnation. In Matthew chapter 24, 25.
There are these, it's the Olivet discourse And Jesus is talking about his his return and… Chapter 24, he's talking about this and what the signs of his coming back are. And this is his coming back to reign as king.
This is not his, this is his… Not primarily… talking at all about the rapture, but talking about when are you going to come back and reign as king? When are you going to set this thing?
To be right. So that's Moses 24. 25, he's talking about that And so there's these these… In each of the parables, there's these two groups of people that are are always alluded to. There's the faithful and wise servant who's blessed, but then there's also these evil servants.
There's the foolish. Virgins who didn't bring the oil, but then there's these wise virgins who did. There's these good and faithful servant who are making the most with what they have. But then there's these wicked lazy, unprofitable servants.
And so when we see this sort of this duality here. The wicked, lazy, and profitable servant They're cast out into the outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The… foolish versions are knocking at the door and The Lord is saying, I don't know you.
Depart from me later. You curse into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
So there's this idea of condemnation. There's these groups of people who… They don't know God, and he doesn't know them, and their part is it's a condemned part because they have to be separated from a holy God.
And so there's condemnation. That is not something that we as believers will ever have to face.
Hallelujah. There is also… discipline which discipline which A loving father.
Disciplines his children. So there are certain times and circumstances that God disciplines us when he needs to.
If our way of thinking is wrong, if our behavior is wrong, if our attitudes are wrong.
He will discipline us. It's not a wonderful thing. Having experienced the discipline of God, I wouldn't recommend it.
It's necessary, but it's not a good time. He corrects us because he loves us and he uses us Sometimes he allows the circumstances, the things that we've created for ourselves, like he allows the consequences of those to to fall on us.
And… But not to cast us away, not in order to destroy us.
But in order to reprove us, to teach us, to correct us.
He's a loving father. And that's how fathers treat their children.
And it's important to remember that We will never be condemned, ever.
There is… times of discipline.
That we necessarily go through, need to go through.
Because God who loves us is… bringing us along.
And he's helping us grow and he's helping us to be conformed into the image of Christ.
But then there's this third This third aspect, which is trials.
Which we all go through. And these are things that are… don't necessarily have anything to do with wrong behavior from us. In fact, most of the time.
It's negative circumstances through right behavior.
So it's people who have been living a God-honoring life And then… No good deed goes unpunished. Have you ever heard that?
So that's the concept here is that you're being punished for something good that you've done.
And this is, we've seen this in the study of Acts, whenever we were going through Acts on Wednesday night last year.
There's many times where we see people who are doing the right thing and they're beaten and they're imprisoned and they're shipwrecked and they're they're facing these just terrible, terrible circumstances And yet there's this joy.
That is associated with the trials. I just wonder… If that is ever my response.
If that's ever your response. Because I know that this is an area in which I have a significant amount of growth, potential growth.
I don't typically look and think, all right. Another bad day. Let's do it.
I typically think Man, I really wish that things would be better.
And… And yet, we see here that we see here
This is a necessary thing. That we go through.
You who have been grieved by various trials that the genuineness of your faith being more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
That praise, honor, and glory Is our praise, honor, and glory.
It's this… This idea that like having stood fast, having fought the good fight, having Having kept the faith There is this reward that is associated with that. And it's an incredible thing.
That When we respond the way Jesus responded to trials.
That we are then, we receive this recognition from god At the end of it.
And yes, we turn around and we give all the glory back to Jesus.
I'm not trying to suggest that that we're not going to do that. But it is also ours.
And it's a wonderful thing to be recognized for the things that we've done.
Here we see the receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. So again.
It's this idea of the salvation that is a future thing and yet it has… present-day implications. It's something that we will receive And yet, here it is. We are receiving it now.
It's an incredible thing. Of this salvation.
Chapter 1, verse 10 of this salvation, the prophets have inquired and searched carefully and prophesied of the grace that would come to you searching what or what manner of time The Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating
When he testified beforehand. The sufferings of Christ.
And the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that not to themselves But to us, they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven
Things which angels desire to look into. The sufferings of Christ.
And the glories that would follow. Sometimes I think it's easy, maybe there's even… maybe you catch a little glimpse of this in Job, but this idea of before the incarnation.
There's this… There's a little bit of an idea that it's easy for you, God.
Because you've never been down here. You've never had to deal with this.
And yet, when Jesus Christ came into the flesh. He, like… He dealt with it.
God became man and suffered. And that's an incredible thing. And it's no wonder that the prophets didn't really understand it.
We have these… I don't even know what you'd call these. Whatever this glass is, frosted glass or however you want to call it.
If somebody were to stand on the other side of that.
We could see a shadow. We could see a general form.
We could see maybe some movement. We'd know that it was a person.
But it would be unclear, right? And you kind of get that's the idea that's being communicated here is the prophets They saw… that God was coming.
And that it was going to… to happen. And I love in the different prophets in the gospels, we see, you know, Jesus as the king in Matthew and we see Jesus as the son of God in John. And we see these different elements
These different aspects of Jesus's character in the Gospels. You get that in the prophets, too.
In the book of Daniel. He's the one, he's the… the son of man who approaches the Ancient of Days.
And in the book of Ezekiel, he's the king. He's this sovereign.
I am the Lord. And then later in the book, I am the Lord your God. And so he's this king who's being carted around by these heavenly beings.
And he's coming into the temple and he's just sort of discusses with the worship. But he's the king and he's the one who comes back at the end of the book and it's all about him.
And in the book of Isaiah, we see that he's the servant.
And then primarily in Isaiah 53, he's the suffering servant. And it's this incredible thing where it's like, God is coming, but… How can God suffer? It didn't make a lot of sense.
And it still doesn't make a lot of sense. Jesus Christ.
God came to the earth and he suffered.
And we suffer. And we have these moments where life is really, really difficult.
And… I think it's no… It's not an accident that Peter immediately directs people from this is your salvation and you're going to suffer But Jesus suffered, and he suffered for you.
And this is a very heartening thing. We're not alone in this.
We're not alone in this. And God who became flesh suffered too. And so he understands what it's like.
And we see that in the book of Hebrews. We don't have a high priest who can't understand, but In every way that… we suffer, he suffered and um It's… It's an amazing thing to have such a high priest as him who's able to
To understand. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that he understood what it was like to excruciate over a Algebra two tests. That's not exactly what it means.
The physical suffering, the mental suffering, the spiritual suffering. And we sometimes can play these games.
I'm not going to lump you into this. I play these games sometimes where I think… I really have it a lot worse than these other people.
And then, you know, every time I verbalize it, it's like.
Well, yeah, but these other people have it worse than you.
And it's like, oh yeah, that's true. So I have it bad, but then other people have a bad. And then you start going down the list. And it's like, well.
These people had it even worse than those people, and then these people were worse.
But then at the very bottom of it all is Jesus Christ on the cross.
Cut off from man, cut off from God. Bearing the full weight and penalty of sin.
And this is our Savior. The one who bore all suffering, who bore all the sin, all the consequences.
All the consequences of our sin fell entirely on him. And here's the one who… It's… He's the one who's drawing us near to himself and reassuring us.
And heartening us and helping us through our own trials and we look to him and we recognize that He's also been here too.
Right. And so… That would be my encouragement to you today.
Just a couple bits of an… application.
Peter is using his own experiences his own the things that he's seen and the things that he's gone through, he's using those to come alongside someone else.
And to help them and strengthen them and give them the ability, try to give them something in order to help them through their trials.
What do you have? What trials has God given you? Has entrusted you with.
What little bit of pain? Might be a monumental pain.
What has he given you? And here in verse 5 it says.
Who are kept by the power of God. So God allows these trials to come into our life into his keeping where he's shielded us.
He's protecting us. He's kept us. And he's allowed these things in.
Not to destroy us. So that we could turn around and have something beautiful to give to somebody else.
He's entrusted us with pain so that we can help other people.
And what has God given you? So that you can reach out and put your arm around somebody else.
Peter is using what he had and we have something. Everybody has something.
Everyone has someone that they can reach out to, somebody that they can encourage.
That would be my… little bit of encouragement to you is… Oftentimes, the painful things we want to guard close And we don't want to let other people into those.
But God has given that to you so that you can then turn around and help somebody else.
And I would just encourage you to do that. Find out what that is.
See how God wants to use it. Offer it up to him. Lord, this is my pain. This is what I've been through.
Is there somebody that I can encourage this with? Can you… direct me into relationship with somebody that I can help.
Or whatever. But I was thinking about this hymn, 554.
And I would just like to just, I'm just going to read it. You don't need to… to turn there or anything, but just encourage you with it. Beloved, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see. There's light for a look at the Savior and life more abundant and free.
O Christ has placed all our burdens He bore all our sins on the cross. The riches of grace ever flowing, he's given new life now to us.
Through death into life everlasting, he passed and we follow him there.
Over sin, over us, sin no more has dominion. For more than conquerors we are.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face.
And the things of earth will go strangely dim. In the light of his glory and grace. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for your word. Thank you that you have given us so many very specific bits of encouragement. We recognize that the apostle Peter did not write this letter to us. He didn't have us in mind and yet
We glean so much from it and you through thousands of years are speaking to our hearts today and encouraging us that you have saved us.
And this salvation is both now and a future reality. We just… we look at Jesus and we see that he suffered in the flesh and we recognize that there is times where we suffer.
And we just want to be heartened by him. And encouraged and that all of the things that you have given to us, both the the gifts and the painful circumstances, that we would use them all.
Every single thing that we have for you. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
You're dismiss