1 Peter: Christ in Us: The Hope of Glory
1 Peter 1:1–12
Peter writes this book to people who are in the midst of suffering.
1 Peter 1:1: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect
exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and
Bithynia,”
“Elect” means that they are God’s chosen people
“Exiles” meant they are not in their native city or country.
“Elect exiles”: “God’s blessed and favored people, but not in a place
where God rules and is recognized; under subjugation to a foreign,
enemy power.”
Peter now gives that name to the church: you and I are God’s chosen
people, but we are living in a land under the rule of an enemy power.
When you are tuned into God, you’re supposed look and be different.
The Bible tells us that we should be different in the way we live out our
faith
1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
According to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a
living hope,”
This world is under a curse. All of it.
Peter reminds them all and us that God’s goodness is mercy.
Hope is what you look forward to on the other side of pain
The quest for hope in pain is a universal human experience.
Vicktor Frankl: “Life in a concentration camp tears open a soul and
exposes its depths and its foundations.”
Peter is saying: trials and pain expose where our hope is
Peter says we have a living hope…
1 Peter 1:3b-4 “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in
heaven for you,”
Friday and Saturday were painful, but there was a Sunday coming that
reversed all of the pain of Friday and Saturday.
Peter sees that we all, right now, are living in a kind of Saturday. We are
exiles.
On that worst day, where it looked like God was the least in control, God
was most in control.
1 Peter 1:6 “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if
necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,”
Rejoice & grieved: are both very intense verbs.
Walking with Jesus is often simultaneously great joy and deep pain.
The cold of trials actually kicks on the heat of your faith.
1 Peter 1:7a “so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more
precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—“
God allows trials to purify faith in you.
Trials reveal those places where you don’t really trust God
“Troubles and trials reveal where you love God’s gifts more than you love
God.”
John 11:4-6 “But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead
to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be
glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and
Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days
longer in the place where he was.”
1 Peter 1:7 “So that your faith… may be found to result in praise and
glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ”
“Hope in Christ is when your hope is in the approval and delight of a God
you can’t see right now but whose face you know you’ll stare into in
eternity.”
1 Peter 1:8-9 “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you
do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is
inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith,
the salvation of your souls.”
Peter bases everything in his life on the fact that Jesus actually rose
from the dead.
1 Corinthians 15:17-19 “…if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is
useless and you are still guilty of your sins. 18 In that case, all who have
died believing in Christ are lost! 19 And if our hope in Christ is only for
this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.”
But it is true Christ is Risen! We Win!
1 Peter 1:10-12 “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied
about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11
inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating
when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12
It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you,
in the things that have now been announced to you through those who
preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven,
things into which angels long to look.”
Deuteronomy 29:29 “The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We
are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable
forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the
terms of these instructions.
Faith grows at one place: the cross.
“We demand explanation; but what God gave us was revelation.”
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