I want us to start briefly in John chapter 21. As the Apostle John ends his remarkable gospel, he chose to focus on the tender moment between the risen Lord - now having come back from death and walking the earth for a short time - and the most prominent of his apostle, Simon Peter.
In Chapter 21, John records how the Lord appeared to Peter as Peter fished on the Sea of Galilee. Weeks earlier, at the crucifixion, Peter has been the most visible defector among all the apostles. They had all fled but it was Peter who we read denying Christ three times in that moment in the Gospel, and he denied Christ publicly, despite the fact that he was the first Apostle among the twelve to confess Christ publicly. That rock, that confession on which Christ said that he would build the church.
And then now, at the end of John's gospel, here's the humiliated Peter, back on his fishing boat, retreating to the life he knew before Christ. And we wonder, as he sat on that boat fishing, if his mind wasn't constantly revisiting the last three years and wondering, “Was all that worth it? What did I do? Did I throw away three years of my life?”
And then here now in John chapter 21 we hear how Jesus appears to the men as they are fishing and calls them from the shore. And they jump off the boat and come to him. And then as they come together for a breakfast there on the seashore, Jesus restores Peter with this very simple little conversation in Chapter 21 verse 15.
John 21:15 So when they finished breakfast Jesus said to Simon Peter: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than this?” He said to him, “Yes Lord, You know that I love You”. He said to him, “Tend my lamb”.
John 21:16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” And he said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love You. He said to him, “Shepherd my sheep.”
John 21:17 (And) He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.
John 21:18 Truly, truly. I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walked wherever you wished, but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.”
John 21:19 Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow me”
In that one powerful moment, Jesus picked up Peter from his despair and from his humiliation. And He pierced his heart with this question that He asked three times, “Do you love me?” And Jesus asked specifically, “Do you love me more than this?”
Now, if you know from the text, he is referencing that haul of fish that Peter brought in from the boat. He says, “Do you love me more than this fish?”, which is a way of saying “You love me more than your work, more than your way of life.” Because after all, here is Peter back at work. Peter responded to that question emphatically, saying, “You know I love you”, to which Jesus commanded Peter, “Then feed my sheep.” Twice more He asked the question, and twice more He gets the response from Peter and twice more He says, “Feed, shepherd, tend my sheep.”
Now we know in that moment that Jesus was erasing the stigma of Peter's three denials by giving him this opportunity for three statements of loyalty and faith back to Jesus. But it's also interesting how Jesus then turns the new acceptance of Peter, the new statements of loyalty, back on Peter now with a demand. He says, “Shepherd my sheep, feed my sheep.”
And of course, we know what Jesus meant by that. He’s saying, “You will act upon your love for me by showing that love to the Lord's flock and specifically feeding them with the Word of God.” Because shepherding His flock was going to be the way by which Jesus expected Peter to demonstrate forevermore his obedience to that Word. Peter just confessed that he was never to deny or forsake the Lord again. And in his first letter to the church as we will see in a moment, proof positive of Peter's faithfulness to that Mission, because this is a letter first and foremost about shepherding the flock. And it's a letter we're going to begin with now.
Let’s turn to First Peter and begin a study of that letter. We’ll keep the background of the letter in our mind as we get into it. Not just the background of the letter - which we will touch on in a bit – but also the background of Peter, a man who in many ways, like Paul, was probably forever tormented in his own memory of how he had let his Lord down (If you know the story, Paul was forever remembering back the moment of Stephen's stoning and other circumstances of the same kind where Paul was in agreement with those who persecuted Christians), and to forever be driven by that attempt, if it were possible, to erase his past through his service to the Lord, knowing that his past was forgiven on the cross.
Peter, now forever more, was devoted to shepherding the sheep with an awareness of how he himself let the Lord down, and not wanting anyone to step in that same path. With any epistle, we want to understand not just who the author is – and we have begun to understand a little now - but we also want to understand the circumstances in the audience.
Peter, we know, was the chief apostle. That was true, not just when Jesus walked the earth - being the most vocal and the most prominent of the twelve - but he carried that role in the early church. He was appointed by Christ into that role and he ministered to Jews in Jerusalem for many years after Jesus' resurrection. We know he's the one who preached that Pentecost - probably the most defining moment in the early church - with Peter being front and centre in that role as leader.
In First Corinthians chapter 15 verse 5, we hear Paul said that Peter was the beneficiary of a private appearance by Christ in His resurrected form - Peter alone was given that one-on-one in those early weeks after the resurrection. We know he was married. And according to first Corinthians 9 verse 5, he travelled with his wife when he went about in ministry.
Now, we don't know when he died, but there is a well-founded church tradition that said he died around AD 64, being crucified upside down in Rome. And there's no reason to doubt the church tradition at this point. Looking at the letters written by this early leader in the church, this man who had such a humble experience in his own walk, you can tell that he tends to favor a practical approach to his ministry. Although his letters raise doctrines, they are almost secondary to the issue. His issue is always one of life's actions of living out. He makes it clear, in fact, right from the start of this letter, that his purpose in writing is not to cover some great principle of theology with his readers. He knows that this particular audience understand, for the most part, every major theological point he's going to raise in the letter. And he draws from that knowledge to a discussion of action.
But for our part, we're going to look at both - we're going to take time at points along the way in the letter to just look at the doctrine, but we’ll go with the letter. So where Peter raises an issue, we’ll touch on it. But if he does not make that a major point in the letter, nor will we. Because that's the only honest way to stay with the intent and the purpose of the author.
We'll move forward with the letter. Peter’s principal purpose here is in doing what's right of living out a holy life for Christ's sake, and the necessity to rely on Christ’s grace in order to do that. Let us think back to what Peter did when he denied Christ three times.
We wonder, as Peter denied Christ three times, didn’t he know better than to do that? In fact, hadn't he been warned that was going to happen? And yet he still fell.
And here’s what we you’re probably thinking too. Taking that lesson into his own life and now approaching the teaching he's about to do in this letter, he’s going to be aware of the fact that just knowing what's right doesn't always get us to the right place, isn’t he?
That it is a necessity, but it's not a sufficiency, that one can know what is right but still do the wrong thing.
It is the role of a shepherd to lead the sheep to where they should go. In simple analogous terms, the sheep knows they need to eat. But yet a sheep is dumb enough that it won't find new pasture unless it's led there. Or they wander off into danger while they are busy looking for a pasture. It needs a shepherd to help it through that process.
And the grace of God is the instrument through which Peter constantly refers us back for the ability to carry out the teaching God has given. He's basically preaching here on realizing, recognizing and yielding to the sovereignty of God.
Let's go to First Peter, Chapter one Verses 1 and 2:
1Pet.
1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen
1Pet. 1:2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Christ Jesus and to be sprinkled with his blood. May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.
Well, if you study letters, you know they all begin with a salutation. And, here's the salutations Peter starts with. But what's interesting as you read the salutation is he doesn't waste a whole lot of time with it. He's teaching before he's done with verse two. He starts with a simple identifying statement. He says, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ. Peter being the chief of those, the rock, as we mentioned earlier. His name is, in Aramaic Cephas which means rock, in Greek Peter means Stone. The man who has unshakeable faith; which was so shaky the hours before the crucifixion, and yet he was to be the first among the apostles both in honour and in authority. We know, as we said earlier, he ministered to the Jews, principally in Jerusalem. So, while Paul was the gentile apostle, Peter was the Jewish apostle.
So Peter's speaking primarily to a Jewish audience, although we wouldn't limit his audience here to be Jews. In fact, this led to a little bit of controversy in those who would study this letter and try to understand this audience. There’re basically two camps. One camp believes that this letter was written exclusively to Jews living outside the land. He says “to those who are residing as aliens scattered throughout”. The word “scattered” literally is diaspora, which is where we get the term for the region outside of Jerusalem, where many Jews settled after they were scattered from Judea. So, many believe this is the letter written almost exclusively to a Jewish mindset, and in there are some interesting qualities we’ll find in the letter as we continue to explore.
Another view is that this is not exclusively a Jewish Christian letter; it was also intended for the gentiles who might receive it. Peter himself said he's writing to the aliens in those cities mentioned.
Now, the first question that is likely to be on our mind now is why Peter says he's writing to aliens?
We're not talking about spaceships, and UFO in outer space here, of course. No. These are aliens in the sense of illegal aliens or legal aliens – immigrants, in other words, people who are living outside their own home country.
One would look at it and say Peter’s referring to Jews. He’s calling them aliens because they're living in a foreign country. They're not living in Judea. Well, that's certainly potentially the case, but that's not all he means here.
Regardless of whether this audience was Jew or Greek, the term alien has a spiritual meaning that's clearly implied in the text. And clearly, this is what Peter is referring to.
These believers were spiritual aliens.
You and I - we are aliens. Spiritually speaking. That's how scriptures describe us.
A believer's allegiance is no longer to this world, nor to anything or any place that could be found in this world. Upon the time we become a believer, we've become an alien to this world.
Jesus, in His own words to the disciples in John chapter 15 said:
John 15:19, “if you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you were not of the world, because I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world hates you.
In that statement, Jesus makes it clear that the moment we believe in the Gospel, we become a child of God and therefore an enemy of the world. We are granted a new citizenship.
Now these are not metaphors. They are literal. From God's perspective, we are no longer citizens of this world.
When you were born again – and you were born by a new father, Christ, rather than of Adam - you became a citizen with Him of His country in the moment you were born again.
Though you have yet to set foot in that country - into that holy city, that city in Jerusalem that is in heaven, waiting to come to the new earth - nevertheless, you are a full legal citizen of that country even now.
Hebrews say it this way in chapter 11 verse 13. Speaking about what the saints of old used to think about their future, knowing that they were citizens of a future heaven:
Heb. 11:13 All of these (meaning all of these saints, all of these) died in faith without receiving the promises but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
Heb. 11:14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
Heb. 11:15 And indeed, if they have been thinking of a country from which they have come out of, they would have had the opportunity to return.
Heb. 11:16 But as it is, they desired a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared the city for them.
Think of Abraham. Abraham was one of the richest men on earth in the days he lived. This man could have bought anything. Do you realize he never bought any land? God sent him to Judea, to the new Promise Land, and said, “This is your land. I'm giving it to you.” But he never bought any of it.
What the writer of Hebrews is saying is, if Abraham had thought that when God said He’s promising Abraham a better land He had meant it to be the physical property Abraham was walking around on that moment, Abraham would have started buying the land up. God made him rich enough to do it. But Abraham was a wanderer his whole life! He was a vagrant from the world's perspective. The only thing he ever bought was a grave for his wife.
Why does someone with that much wealth not buy land that God has told him is his? Because, as the writer of Hebrews said, he knew that the real promise was for a different land. Same physical spot on earth, but a different earth. Same promise - not in the world, but in a heavenly world.
Here’s what we have to know. Anything you buy in this world burns up when the world goes with it. Where is your hope? It’s not in the here and now. Your hope is into a future and you live here and now waiting for the future, knowing it is coming. And to those who understand that, they put no investment in this world, because it’s just a waste of time.
And what Peter is saying to this church very early in this “one word”, by calling them “alien” is bringing to mind this concept that they were not saved for an eternity on this earth per se. They were saved into an eternity, into a new citizenship that is yet to show itself to them, but which is no less real, no less coming.
The fundamental issue that Peter is going to raise in this letter over and over again, an issue that his readers wrestled with, and an issue we’ll today all still wrestle with is simply this: are we living as tourist and sojourner in this world, or are we busy putting down roots, because the flip side of being a citizen in heaven is that you're an alien now?
You know, if you're settling into this world and forgetting where your citizenship really lies, and you're forgetting where your true hope resides, and if you’re bought into this world and into all that the world tells us matter, then you're only deceiving yourself.
Because you are not going to be changing where you're a citizen of. You're only going to be wasting time in your investment in this world.
Then there's a second major theme of the letter that's also going to come up several times that Peter introduces in those same first 2 verses. He said his readers are those who are not only aliens but are also chosen by God.
The believer is God's elect.
Peter did not introduce this comment in passing, as sort of a throwaway line. No, he's meaning this with all its intent. He's saying, you were aliens and you were also God's elect.
We are brought into our new life as a believer by God's power and at the moment that happens, we become an alien to this world and a citizen of the next. And that was done by God. Verse 2 says it was according to the foreknowledge of God.
Our election into the family of God has its beginning in the eternal purpose of God's will. Our inevitable adoption as sons and daughters of God was a decision formed in the will of God and executed before even the foundations of the world was laid, according to Ephesians Chapter One.
You were His before you were born, by His will, appointed for a day of belief. And more than that, Scripture says we were His before Adam was born, appointed for that same day.
God's foreknowledge is not a way of saying God knew what beforehand was going to happen. It's a way of saying that God's knowledge of what would happen was indicative of His will, that it would happen.
Acts 2:22 puts it this way. When you look at the statement of Stephen talking about the history of Israel:
Acts. 2:22 ‘Men of Israel, listen to these words; Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders in signs which God performs through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves now know-
Acts. 2:23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
In the way Stephen describes it, he says it was always God's predetermined plan and foreknowledge that this would happen the way it did, and yet it happened through the hands of godless men. Paul puts it very simply in Ephesians 1 verse 5:
Eph. 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
God's foreknowledge is always connected to God's sovereign power to bring about that very thing He knows, according to His will. To say that all God does is simply know in advance who is going to be believing, and that's why he calls us the elect is to deny the truth of the Bible.
The word “elect” means to make a decision to select someone for a position. That's how we use the word in common day language. That's how the Bible uses the word. When God elects, it is the case that God is choosing men and women to receive His grace.
In fact, notice in verse three, Peter says that God the Father has caused us to be born again in a living hope. And even before that in verses one and two, Peter actually describes the means by which God did that.
He says in verse two, our salvation came about: 1) because of the foreknowledge of the Father, 2) because of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, and 3) made possible by the cleansing by Christ's sacrifice on the cross.
God, the Father chose us, God the spirit changed our hearts so that we would receive the truth and God, the Son, cleanses our sins by His blood, so that all three persons in the trinity were involved in the work of redemption, working a plan that God himself foreknew, anticipated and intended before we ever took our first breadth.
So that at the point where we say we believe who could receive the glory but God?
Even those who would somehow try to say “Yes, I know it's by grace, but I chose God.” have denied him some element of the glory He rightly received.
No, you didn't choose Him.
The Bible says no one chooses God.
No, not one.
But in God's grace and mercy, He can change our hearts so that we would believe and choose Him.
And no one comes to the Father but that the Spirit first draw him, we're told in John's gospel.
That is the truth, that his readers never needed a preaching like that. The modern church needs that, but the church in the day Peter wrote the letter would not only have received it with a head nod, they would have thought nothing of it, because the nation of Israel fully appreciated that they had been chosen. Deuteronomy 7 verse 6;
Deut. 7:6 “For you are a holy people to the LORD, your God; The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the people throughout the face of the earth.
If you were a Jew, the last thing you needed any teaching on, was the principle that God chooses men to be His children. It was a foregone conclusion. It’s safe to assume, therefore, that Peter gives no attention to it in terms of doctrinal background. He simply mentions it as a statement of fact, because that's how his readers would have received it. So Peter is not intending here to launch into a discourse on the doctrine of election. So what is his purpose in mentioning it?
It’s for perspective. He wants to develop a little perspective in these believers, alongside the idea of aliens. Look at how the two work together.
You and I, if we were to become an alien right now, it's only going to be by our choice, is it not?
I can't make you an alien in terms of your citizenship. The only way you're going to be an alien is if you get your passport, get on a plane and go somewhere, and then when you get there, you'll be able to say, “Yes, I'm now an alien and I know exactly how I got here.
And then when you have bad food and a hotel that isn't very comfortable, you're not blaming anyone but yourself, are you? You chose to go there, you arranged for the accommodation, it's all you.
But now what Peter is telling his readers is “You’re an alien. You're in a world that's not your own anymore.” And because, as Jesus Himself said, “You're not of this world, they're going to hate you. They're going to persecute you.”
And you're going to sit there and ask yourself, “How did I get here? Why am I an alien in this world? I didn't choose to be an alien in this world, did I? I don't remember signing up for that. And in fact, if I repudiate some of this Christian stuff and go back to my Jewish way of life, I'm not going to have as many of these trials and troubles.”
Now, what's interesting is, a Jew was already a persecuted person in the world that they lived in Peter's day. But if you were Jewish Christian, now the Jews persecuted you too. So it’s not only that the whole world hated you, your brethren hated you too. You lost out on the opportunity to be part of that family. You would no longer be accepted at the temple. You would no longer be allowed to participate in many of the festivals that defined your life. What else do you do? Where does your new way of life come from? And how did you get there, by the way?
Yes, it’s by God's choice.
So now, in light of circumstances you don't like, your attitude is going to be different if you understand that it’s by God's choice that you're in that circumstance. Because in our way of thinking, problems cry out for solutions, and persecution is a problem.
And, if you have a problem, you want to fix your problem, unless, of course, the problem isn't so much of a problem from God's perspective, unless that problem was God's ordained set of circumstances for you as His chosen.
Now your attitude may be a lot different, won't it? Because when the times get tough, faith can falter. And who knows that better than Peter? And if Peter had understood why Jesus was being persecuted, if he could have possibly understood in the moment why it was that He had to go to the cross, do you think he would have denied Him?
Why do you deny Christ in the midst of what was going on? And that time Peter saw Jesus being persecuted, why would he need to deny Christ? Well, so that he didn't end up on the cross too. Right?
The whole point was so that he didn't get in trouble together with Jesus. But on the other hand, if God had told Peter, “I'm not sending all the disciples to the cross right now. I'm just sending my Son.” If Peter had understood why, if he had understood it was by God's sovereign will - predetermined, predestined and foreknown by God - that event would unfold a certain way on a certain day - if Peter could have known and understood all that, would he have needed to deny Christ?
Knowing that now, as the shepherd of the flock, can he not be a source of knowledge and insights for the church which might similarly find itself at times under persecution, in circumstances they don't like, because of their faith?
Wives and husbands in bad marriages, they seek escape. Slaves under a bad master, employees under bad employers, citizens under bad rulers, they seek to rebel. The problem when faith falters is how and where we tend to go in seeking relief – we tend to run counter to our witness.
It seems the more persecution comes for your faith, the greater you'll have to depart from your witness in order to escape that persecution. In Peter's day, it was very simple. Deny Christ as Lord, declare Caesar as Lord, and all this goes away. It's just that simple, but it's also just that complicated, and just that damaging to your witness.
Peter remembers that lesson and he is teaching it here, and let’s see where it goes next. After that short introduction, the first lesson he has on perspective for his readers and for you and I today, is a three-part description on the character of our salvation.
Peter is going to describe the character of your salvation, and he's going to do it in three stages. He's going to talk about the reward. Then he's going to talk about the experience, the present-day reality of it. And then finally, he's going to talk about the privilege of it.
The reward, the experience, the privilege. Chronologically: one is future, one is present, one is past. We’ll get through the first one and come back for the second and third another time. And here’s where the reward is described. Verse 3:
1Pet. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
1Pet. 1:4 to obtain an inheritance, which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
1Pet. 1:5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Now, it's only natural to remind the readers here, at this point in the letter, of their reward. For those who might falter, or have some concern over how they got to where they are, why it is that God is putting them through all these things?
Well, let’s see what is at stake here. Peter starts in verse 3 again by reminding the believers that their salvation was first and foremost a hope in resurrection.
We are often amazed by how few Christians can actually state what belief means when they say to someone, “You have to believe in Christ to be saved”.
So, what is it exactly that I have to believe? Was it to believe that Christ existed? Well, that's hardly a very challenging belief, because even historians would agree that Christ existed.
Where is their salvation in that?
What I have to believe, of course, is that He was the Messiah, That He died on the cross for our sins.
But now how would I know that to be true? Where is there any evidence of that? Well, Romans 10 gives us the answer. Romans 10 verse 9:
Rom. 10:9 that If you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
That's what you have to believe about Jesus Christ. That his death and resurrection were done by the power of God for the sake of sinners. Believing that He raised Him from the dead.
Now in that belief, you have reason for hope, Peter says, knowing that the same power of God that raised Jesus from death will be made available to those through faith, who would trust in Jesus for the same outcome. Second Corinthians 4 verse 13 puts it this way:
2Cor. 4:13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I BELIEVE THEREFORE I SPOKE,” we also believe, therefore we also speak,
2Cor. 4:14 knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will present us with you.
There is a living hope in that belief. When you use the word hope in this world today, what you’re really saying is you “wish”. For example, “I wish those things would happen” which immediately implies that I really don't know. First, it's completely outside my knowledge of what will happen. And secondly, there's at least a possibility I'll be wrong. It’s an uncertainty, which is why I'm sitting here worrying about it.
Hope isn't that in the Bible. The way the Bible describes the word “hope”, the way it uses it, and the actual word behind it in Greek is a certainty. There is joy in hope because it is a complete certainty that it will happen.
The better way to use the word hope in our culture, if we wanted to use it in a biblical way would be to say this. You know that you will be resurrected upon the death of your physical body and you know this, or to use the difficult term, you hope this, because the God who saved Jesus in that way has promised to do the same to you. And the proof of the promise was the reality of its occurrence in Jesus' life.
If someone says, “I have a solution to you for death, I can help you cheat death.” and then they die, and you don't see them again, how much faith do you put in their supposed cure for death? The man who knows how to save you from death, he himself will have to be able to overcome death as proof positive of his power before you put any trust in his word.
And when Jesus walked the earth after His own death, He provided the proof that the Gospel documented, that His answer for how to cheat death is truly the answer, and that answer relies on His death in your place.
And then when this physical body gives up, as it will one day, or in the rapture, then that body will be replaced with a new one and you will live on in a new way.
That is the hope you and I have. Now, if you are like Abraham, you truly have that hope. If you really believe that you will be alive after this body has gone and that life will continue on eternally, then how much should you put in this body? You've got a new body coming, brand new incorruptible body, an eternal one and it will live forever with God in a new place, which is much better than this one. What are you doing in your life based on that hope? And could anyone see in your life proof that you have that hope?
And that's Peter's concern here when he says your salvation is this hope you have in resurrection, a hope you know to be true.
But that's not enough.
Peter then reminds the reader that this transformation is followed by an inheritance. Verse 4 says that our salvation brings with it an undefiled, imperishable inheritance reserved in heaven and it cannot fade, it cannot be withdrawn, it cannot be lost.
So people write a will and sometimes we call it a last will and testament, and in that last will and testament, the death of the one who wrote it resolves in whatever within that will, the executed being carried out for the beneficiary, for the heirs.
And Jesus Christ had a last will and testament. We call it the New Testament. And that New Testament provided for the heirs to receive an inheritance upon the death of the one who inaugurated that last will and testament, who was Christ. And as heirs, we're to be the recipient of that inheritance., Hebrews 9 is the description of how the death of the one who wrote the testament of the Covenant, in the case of biblical terminology, that becomes the mechanism by which the inheritance is then provided.
Our testamentor, Christ, has died. He died the death required by that will and testament, which then brought into being our inheritance. Now you're asking yourself, “So, then, I've already received my inheritance, right? I'm kind of concerned...because the house I live in, I'm not really happy with that. Is that really the good thing that I have coming to me? Is that what you mean by inheritance?”
So, the inheritance is indeed been given to His heirs, even to those who may yet be born. But it is in heaven reserved for them.
So why don’t we have our inheritance right now?
Because if God were to give us that inheritance right now, it would have to come in the form of this physical world. How else could it have come to us, but in a physical form? And then what's going to happen? It's going to fall into the curse of this physical world, just as everything else does, and it's going to begin to rot away and moths are going to eat it, and thieves are going to take it, and eventually it's going to burn up. Do we want our inheritance that way?
God in His wisdom has a better plan for your inheritance. He’s going to hold on to it up there just for a while. We’re really only talking a few decades, and we'll be right there with it. We and our inheritance won’t ever perish, and we won’t ever leave God’s presence. It is an eternal inheritance.
I know sometimes as we think about that inheritance, it may draw in our hearts, this thought of, that seems like the wrong thing to think about. We don't know if we should really be spending time thinking about some inheritance God has reserved for us. It doesn't seem very spiritual.
Well, you’ll have to take that up with the Bible. Notice that Paul's most common refrain to the Christians who he wishes to provide a sense of hope and anticipation to is in our resurrection and our eternal inheritance? And the most common refrain to try to trigger in us an obedient life is a thought of what is at stake in our inheritance.
Because when you think about it, what else is there? Can you sin your way out of your salvation? Praise God, no. You didn't earn it, so you can't un-earn it.
So, if that's the case, then what is the motivation God has held out to His heirs, to His children for obedience?
Good gifts.
And our Father in heaven, being so much better than us, knows how to give His children good gifts. And those good gifts come in the form of present-day blessing and grace. And they're ultimately described in Scripture as an eternal inheritance reserved for us, and reserved to each of us according to His pleasure, based on our obedience. And that's why Peter says, “I am not going to let Him down. I'm going to run this race to the end and receive that crown that He has waiting for me.”
So, it is the case that we have this hope and resurrection, and we have this inheritance upon our resurrection that we can look forward to, if it weren't good enough, those two things, whether they actually happen, that’s not in our power. It’s in God’s power. So, we are protected in that inheritance by His power.
That, however, does not deny the reality of our own obedience and it does not reduce the requirement that we have to devote our efforts in excellence to following Him. But it does guarantee that your resurrection and your inheritance is not at risk in the ultimate sense. You cannot do as Peter did which is to deny Christ three times, and then expect Christ to turn His back on you. Peter is the best living example out of the Bible for how that cannot be true. Christ and God himself is faithful even when we are faithless.
And then he was into the second point just briefly. Verses 6 to 9.
1Pet. 1:6 In this, you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been distressed by various trials,
1Pet. 1:7 so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, maybe found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
1Pet. 1:8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory,
1Pet. 1:9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
We want to look just briefly at where he begins here. Notice the contrast he draws. He's been talking about the reward. Now he's talking about the present reality. Remember, we're talking here about the eternal realm versus the world we live in as aliens.
In the eternal, it was all about permanence and dependence. We know it's true and it's going to happen and it's permanent and it's imperishable and it is there by the power of God.
And now Peter turns to the present. And what does he say? Things like, “a little while”, “if necessary.” It is essential now that he turns in the contrast that the things of this world are passing, they are temporal, they are temporary, and they're not where we put our faith and our trust.
And then in verse 6, he says, “You have trials, but only for a little while.” This enters us into the rest of the chapter, for the most part, and the book as well, because the book is heavily focused on trials, on the challenges that come in faith.
Now, just because we don't have someone beating down our door trying to drag us off to prison because of our faith, it doesn’t mean that we are not vulnerable to the enemy’s attacks in any other ways. The thing is, he is not going to come at you the way you expect. And when it comes - whatever it is that in your life that is drawing you out of where God would have you be - that's your trial. That's your test, and that’s where you make your sacrifice, in whatever form it may take. And if you're focused on the here and now and not the eternal, it's going to be a challenge.
But if you're focused on the eternal, what hope could any of that have to draw your attention away? James says it this way in Chapter 4 verse 13:
James 4:13 Come now you who say, “today or tomorrow you will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”
James 4:14 Yet, you don't know what your life will be like tomorrow. You're just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
When Peter says “You may have trials now for a little while”, is he saying that you're only going to have little moments in your life that are trials? No, that’s not what he means. He's saying, “Your life is brief.”
A person could be born with a trial that could last the lifetime of that individual. You realize by biblical definition that is a brief trial, because in the span of eternity, no one's life is anything other than a vapor, and brief. And if it is brief, it can never be the excuse that we want to explain away our lack of obedience to God’s calling in our life.
Peter’s bringing things to mind in a soft way. He wants his readers to understand that the message that this letter is going to convey is one of obedience and suffering. But he’s also saying that with eyes set on eternity, rather than on the here and now, we can at least appreciate God's grace and sovereignty and be willing to endure whatever He brings meanwhile for the sake of His glory and my testimony, knowing that He is protecting me for an eternal opportunity in His presence with an inheritance awaiting.
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