Our reading of God's Word comes to us tonight from the book of 1st Peter. We'll be reading chapter 1 and considering verses 1 through 9. That is the book of 1st Peter, and if you're looking for that in your pew Bibles, I believe you'll find it on page 1293. Once more, that is the book of 1st Peter chapter 1, and we'll read together the first nine verses. Brothers and sisters, I would remind you that this is God's own holy word. Give your full attention to it. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ, and for sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you 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 through the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you who by god's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 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 obtaining the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls there ends the reading of god's word let's pray and ask his spirit for his help in understanding it our god in heaven lord once more we just express our gratitude to you that you have given us your word and that you have given us your church where we may gather to hear it proclaimed lord now we pray that you prepare our hearts to hear it this evening that you would clear our minds of any distractions or worries or cares that we bring with us into this place in spirit we pray that you would be with this word of exhortation that your word oh lord would go forth like seed unto ready soil into our hearts this evening that we would be convicted of our sin that we would be comforted with christ and that through your word oh lord we would learn better how to love you with all of our heart soul mind and strength and our neighbors as ourselves hear us for we do pray in jesus name amen well the world right now is looking for hope hope is a small word but it's one so important for us living here in the 21st century though it's not a word that has ever been empty of meaning or purpose in any culture if we're honest with ourselves sometimes it feels like we now live in uniquely troubled times doesn't it news of tragedy is able to just spread like wildfire when we go home and turn on our televisions or read our newspapers or whatever it may be our eyes are filled with images of heartbreak our ears ring from the sound of it and this is nothing new to human history sorrow oppression wars famines heartbreak disaster yet we carry around with us all of the sorrows of the world and little screens in our back pockets that give us constant and anxious access to it. And not just globally, but also individually. Each one of us here tonight, we know what it means to suffer from various trials, which is the phrase that Peter uses here in his letter. We know what it means personally to face the curse, whether it's in sickness or poverty or sorrow. We could encapsulate all of it in one word tonight, and that is the word suffering. It's a bit of a grim topic, no doubt, but it is the topic that undergirds Peter's letter this evening. He wrote this letter to Christians who were suffering, and he wrote it to Christians who were specifically suffering persecution. And when we hear that word, persecution, it might seem somewhat foreign to us at first. We know the stories of our brothers and sisters across the world who face even the sword, face death for their confession. We pray for them, and we thank God for their testimony. But living in the West, living in the United States, we don't know what it's like to face persecution physically. But that doesn't mean that we don't still face it. Ours is a more subtle, spiritual form of persecution. In our culture, so often, Christians are branded, it seems, with these invisible scarlet letters that we're forced to walk around with that read narrow-minded, bigoted, behind-the-times, intolerant, Because we refuse to blow along with the winds of our culture. And as invisible as those scarlet letters may be, sometimes it feels like they're no less real for it. It can cost us our jobs. Sometimes it can cost us relationships. So in whatever way we face these various trials, whether it's reflecting on the global situation, whether it's our situation individually or even because of our faith. When we enter into these seasons of trial, there's one question that always kind of commonly bubbles up in all of us, and that is the question of why. What is the purpose of this? What good can come from it? And for those of us who have placed our faith in Christ, we may even ask, why has God brought me into this season? Why has God brought me into this place? Well, Peter this evening pens this letter and he writes to provide you, dear Christians, with the antidote to despair, to remind you that by faith you have been reborn to a hope that cannot be tarnished by all of the visible darkness of this world, that your hope is in Christ, even in the grips of life's most vicious trials. And this evening he also wants to reorient your perspective to take your eyes and to fix them firmly on christ and your inheritance which jesus has won for you in heaven though for the time being those realities are invisible to us ultimately what we see in this passage is that because yours is a heavenly hope you can endure even your hardship with joy because yours is a heavenly hope you can endure your hardship with joy and we're going to see this in two ways this evening first we're going to look at this inheritance that peter describes in the opening few verses and how this is the substance of our heavenly hope and then peter is going to turn with us and he's going to apply that hope to our life on earth and the trials and the struggles that we experience there so if you're note takers this evening and you like to follow along with an outline our two points first will be titled heavenly hope and then second will be earthly endurance so let's turn then to our first point heavenly hope wherein we will see that though we are exiles on earth we have been reborn to an imperishable inheritance. Have a look with me again, if you will, at verse 1 once more. We read, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles for the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you well right away what we see here is that peter addresses his letter to christians who find themselves spread out or dispersed across the roman empire all of these places pontus galatia bithynia they are in the country what is in modern times called turkey and as we read this greeting that peter gives it strikes us perhaps maybe as a little bit odd. It's different than the types of greetings we're used to in Paul. Paul typically opens his letters addressing the saints of God in a particular city. That's not how Peter opens. He doesn't open by addressing the saints of God, though they are so. He calls them the elect exiles of the dispersion. Peter is choosing his words very carefully. When he writes to the exiles of the dispersion, he wants your mind to flood again with Old Testament imagery and story and picture. What he wants you to think of is Israel, disinherited from the promised land, forced to live in hostile countries, carried off into exile by the kings of Assyria and Babylon, and then dispersed across these pagan empires so much so that eventually some of them lost their identity as the people of god we know from the book of kings that 10 of these tribes did not return from exile but they became so ingrained in their culture that they just became part of it and even today they are known as the lost tribes of the dispersion. So when Peter uses this phrase, exiles of the dispersion, he wants you to think of God's chosen people living outside of their promised home. God's chosen people living outside of their promised home in a period and a season of exile. We should hang on to that idea as we proceed this evening. So at first glance, When we look at this greeting, it seems like perhaps Peter is, like Jeremiah in chapter 29, writing a letter to God's people in exile. You see, Peter isn't necessarily addressing those who have been exiled from earthly Jerusalem into earthly Babylon. This idea of exiles into the dispersion, dear Christians, refers to all of us. all of us who have been born in exile from our true home, the Jerusalem that is in heaven. For those of you who are united to Christ by faith, you find yourself sojourning on earth, a place that is far from your home in heaven. And so this evening, we should understand Peter's audience as Christians who are meant for heaven, Yet in the meantime, find themselves living on earth, a place of trial and a place of trouble. We can look at 1 Peter 1, verse 17 and 2, verse 11 to see that he consistently refers to the Christian life as that of exile. But we are not merely exiles, are we? That's not what Peter calls you. He calls you elect exiles. And there's a lot of comfort even in that simple word. You see, he's telling you that we are not just exiles wandering in the desert wastes, far from God's city or without hope. But God, in verse 2, he shows you the triune God has worked in history to accomplish your salvation. You've been foreknown by God the Father before the foundations of the earth. You are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit and you have been washed clean from all of your sins by the precious blood of Christ spilled on the cross. You see, the point of all of this is that on your own, you deserve an exile worse than the mundane struggles of life on earth. You deserve that ultimate thing that even Israel's exile was just a picture of, which is death, which is hell being cast finally and ultimately away from God's presence of blessing. But because Christ has washed you in his blood, because he went to the cross and he took that exile upon himself for you, now you are being made into fit citizens of heaven. Those who have the right and privilege to one day stand in God's presence and experience peace and in the meantime carry with you the promise of knowing that though you are exiles you are elect and you are someday going to go home so on earth you may be in exile but Peter goes on to tell you that in Christ you have been reborn to an imperishable inheritance we can see that in verse 3 if you'll look there with me where Peter writes according to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of jesus from the dead so what we see there is that your hope that thing that all of us clamor for that thing that all of us are desperate to cling on to like a life raft in these troubled times your hope is bound up in the resurrection of jesus christ you can go nowhere else to find it and that is because the root of all human suffering ultimately is sin but when christ died upon the cross he took all of your sin with him down into death into that tomb and yet he raised to life victoriously but your sin as far as god is concerned stayed dead there and now jesus has resurrection life and in his resurrection life as you are united to him by faith this means that now you are no longer sons of adam and heirs of curse doomed to eternal exile but now you are sons of god and heirs of heaven co-heirs with christ peter tells you that because you place your faith in christ you have been born again to a living hope and an imperishable inheritance and when you hear this word inheritance what is it that immediately comes to mind i think for most of us the first thought is what passes between a parent and child at the event of death money property goods whatever it may be and that idea possibly is in peter's mind somewhere but once more really he wants to take us back to the pages of the old testament what was israel's inheritance you've been studying genesis and exodus so i know you know the answer it was the land of canaan the promised land a good land flowing with milk and honey a promise that sustained them as they wandered in the wilderness a promise in abraham that sustained them even when they were living in bondage and slavery and that good land was always meant to just be a picture of heaven but yet we know that sad story too well we know that israel's inheritance in the land could never ultimately be described as secure unfading or imperishable we know that it was defiled by disobedience it was desolated by foreign armies when they came to carry them off into exile all of the former outward glories of the temple and its administration have faded so by contrast this evening peter is telling you that your inheritance is not tied to the dust and politics of some city in the Middle East now, but instead it is being kept for you in heaven, waiting to be revealed in the last time. That is the promise that sustains you. That is the hope that you look towards. And this contrast that Peter makes on purpose is to show you that your inheritance now can't be lost by disobedience. like Israel lost the land. And that ultimately is because your heavenly inheritance never depended upon your obedience in the first place, but it depended upon Christ's, who was obedient as your representative. And brothers and sisters, the good news is that Jesus accomplished it on your behalf perfectly. And since that obedience of Jesus' is yours by faith, now his inheritance is yours by faith. Peter drives this very point home for us. In chapter 1, verse 23, if you'll look there with me as well, he writes, and notice as we read this, that he repeats himself. He's employing some of the same language that we've already read. Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. Skip down to verse 25. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. All of this is to say that when you heard and believed the gospel, that is the moment when you were given a new birth and a share in this inheritance in heaven. You were born again by an imperishable seed, which is tended by God himself to an imperishable inheritance kept in heaven. Your faith, your perseverance in that faith, and your salvation, Peter shows us first to last our work of the triune God. In the passage that we read just a few moments ago this evening, notice what role you play in it as a believer. It's not an active one. Peter doesn't talk about all the things that you do or that you have done, but in it you are cast as passive. You receive these blessings from God. You are granted this inheritance in heaven and you are being guarded by God. That's what Peter says in verse 5. He describes you as those who, by God's power, are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ultimately here peter wants to anchor your hope in god and not in yourself as you look to that coming precious and imperishable inheritance this ought to assure us brothers and sisters that your faith though in this life it certainly will go through its ups and its downs its peaks and its valleys it is being protected by god so that it can never be lost and that's an important point for us to hold on to as we continue looking at this passage as peter goes on to describe for us our trial he gears our mind for that discussion already by telling us that no matter what we face in what season you are being guarded by god and that there's an inheritance for you that is being kept by god in heaven well in some ways it would be really nice if peter stopped here and that was the end of the introduction after describing all of these wonderful things that christ has done for us through his death and this imperishable inheritance that is ours in heaven as we are being guarded by god we could say amen sing a psalm and go home but peter is not so heavenly minded that he is no earthly good he knows that for now you are still exiles he knows that for now you are still living on earth so he takes this living hope that is yours by faith and he applies it to the trials and the suffering that you see and encounter in this world. And so we'll turn to our second point this evening, an earthly endurance. And there we will see that God has a purpose for us in our trials, which enables us to maintain a proper perspective in them. So read with me now, verse six. Peter writes, in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. Well, here in this verse, we are taken from the wonderful vistas of heaven that we were able to look at in those preceding verses back down to the somewhat painful reality of our present experience here on earth. Peter tells us that as we make our pilgrim way, we do experience grief from various trials. And when Peter uses this phrase here, various trials, he's being comprehensive. On the one hand, he is referring specifically to the types of trials that you will endure as God's people because of your faith and because of your confession, namely persecution. In chapters 2 through 3, Peter speaks at length about the suffering in this world you will endure as a Christian. But on the other hand, he is also referring to just kind of the general trials of life, the day-to-day issues that every one of us faces as we make our way in this world. This phrase, various trials, is the exact same phrase that James employs in the first chapter of his letter. And James, too, has persecution on his mind. but he's also referring to poverty and to sickness and to broken relationships within the church so the point here is that whatever season of trial you may face or may be facing whether you've lost your job whether you become sick whether you know the pain of broken relationships in the church or you're suffering under the weight of those invisible scarlet letters in a culture that calls you intolerant or bigoted for holding to biblical values. Peter writes that these various trials cause us true grief. And it's important for us to sit with that for just a moment. It is no sin to feel grief in your heart when you encounter these seasons of trial. It is not as if the Christian never weeps. We have many examples in God's Word of godly men and women weeping when they face difficulties and distress and sorrow, our Lord among them. But it is only the Christian who in the middle of those tears has the promise and has the hope of knowing that one day Jesus himself is going to wipe every last one of those tears away. So Peter seeks in the midst of all of this to provide us with encouragement in shedding a light on what the purpose of our suffering is. In verse 7 he writes, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So here Peter tells you simply that your trials serve the purpose of testing your faith. And testing is a process of determining whether or not something is genuine. This too is something that Peter lifts right out of the Old Testament, specifically wisdom literature. Proverbs 17, verse 3 tells us that the crucible is for silver, the furnace for gold, and the Lord tests hearts. And notice there that both Proverbs and Peter employ the imagery of fire being tested or purified by gold. And there's a reason for that. imagine for a moment that you were to go to a jewelry store and you were to buy a gold watch or maybe gold earrings or whatever it is that you wanted if they if they wanted to sell you gold that had just that day been mined up out of the earth you wouldn't want it it wouldn't have that shining allure that gold has to us that that glorious luster and appeal because it would be still full of earth full of impurity so first they take that gold and they subject it to fire they subject it to intense heat to burn all of those impurities away so that what is left is a gold that truly does bring honor to the person who wears it so in a similar way peter is saying that the result of testing is a faith that is genuine and one that will bring great praise and honor and glory to god at the revelation of jesus christ so those or this is the purpose of your trials it is god's ordained means for a time putting your faith in that blast furnace of adversity so that what comes out is a faith that is genuine a faith that is steadfast and one that achieves its outcome the salvation of your soul as much as we may not want to hear it steadfast faith is not produced in life's most relaxed moments peter is saying here this evening just as the body must be subjected to rigor resistance and exercise to become strong so faith by god's will and purpose is subjected to trial though these trials may cause us grief though they are compared by peter and by proverbs to fire they are not meant to crush your faith but rather to strengthen it remember what peter has already told us that you are being guarded by god's power whatever trial you may face it is not coming to you by the cold hands of chaos but rather you are receiving it from god's fatherly hand for his good purposes and he is sustaining you in the midst of it so perhaps some of you this evening aren't facing seasons of trial right now and you know you were in the middle of seasons of plenty and seasons of prosperity. And praise God for that. Scripture tells you to sing God's praises in those moments. But if it is you this evening, the concept of trial is all too real to you. You are standing in the middle of that blast furnace of adversity. Know that Peter is writing these words under the inspiration of the spirit to remind you that even the middle of this whatever this may be god is for you and he is at work in you to bring about the faith that he desires the faith that he is pleased in so understanding that good purpose of god in our trials we are able to maintain a proper perspective in verse 6 peter says in this you rejoice and when he says in this once more he is reminding us of everything we saw in our first point that glorious inheritance that by christ's work is being kept for you in heaven that you are being guarded for but he goes on to say that though you are grieved by these various trials he says that it is only for a little while those are the words that he uses. And I think that it is in this moment that it feels to us like what Peter's written and what our experiences are pass each other like chips in the night. No trial, when you're in the midst of it, feels like it's just for a little while. It fills your vision. Any moment of pain or hardship feels like it's going to last forever, whether or not it will. And some of us, indeed, have been subjected to lifelong trials. So how can Peter write this? How can he use these words for a little while? We need to remember that Peter is talking about perspective. He is saying that compared to the joy that is going to be yours when you are at last at home with Jesus, even a lifetime of trial will feel brief by comparison. We began this evening in the theme of exile. That's the word that Peter used to address you as the church as you make your way in this world. So it's appropriate for us to continue to think of Israel when they were in their exile in Babylon. It was described by the prophets as lasting 70 years. 70 years is a long time. That's enough time for an Israelite to have been born, lived their whole life, and then died in exile, never having seen the promised land. And yet, in Ezekiel chapter 11, God refers to their exile as just a while. It's a matter of perspective. Your exile too, brothers and sisters, is only for a little while. It's something similar to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 16. He writes, so we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light, momentary affliction, is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Paul was a man, too, who was well acquainted with persecution, who was well acquainted with all of life's various trials, and yet he describes his suffering as a light, momentary affliction. No matter the grief you may encounter on this world, Brothers and sisters, you have a hope that outlives it. And as Paul shows us, your hope is not found in the visible things of this world. The things that are transient. So often we fall into that trap, don't we? When we're suffering, even when we're not suffering, we look to created things. We look to the things of this world to be our hope, to be our comfort, to be our ultimate pleasure. And though the things we may look to may be good things that God has given to us to enjoy, they are never meant to be what our focus is entirely put upon, especially not in seasons of trial. I've heard it said that in seasons of suffering, it really does reveal what your gods are. Because when you're in pain, when you're suffering, there are things that you naturally go to, first and foremost, for comfort. When things get hard, you go straight to that. And in a way, that reveals what you worship. That reveals the priority of your soul. That reveals the priority of your heart. But Paul tells us that these things are transient. They're not the source of your hope. The source of your hope is Christ in heaven. And Peter, in our passage, encourages you to keep the same perspective in verse 8. He writes, 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 it's true that none of us have seen jesus with our physical eyes but with our eyes we have seen a lot of our own suffering and the suffering of our loved ones but with eyes of faith we do behold him in his word when we read there about who he is and what he has done for you that's why it's so important in times of hardship to read god's word or when you know someone who's struggling to speak god's word to them and that's why it's so ultimately important that no matter what the season is you come regularly to church to hear god's word preached to receive the sacraments because these are the holy spirit's means by which he takes your eyes off of those transient things and fixes them upon the invisible realities of heaven your imperishable inheritance and your reigning lord there who has saved you and peter alludes to it in our passage but he will go on to describe it more fully later these realities in heaven that are invisible now the source of your hope they won't be invisible forever and we can hang on to that one day jesus is going to return and when he returns he's going to bring that heavenly inheritance to you with him but in the meantime we're meant to focus our eyes of faith on those realities though they are invisible your inheritance and your hope so what is it that peter has called you to this evening brothers and sisters he's called you to a living hope a living hope in christ even in the midst of all of the visible darkness of this world. Though for a little while you may be exiled in a hostile and even a troubled world, Jesus, by his death and resurrection, has redeemed you out of that world, and he has given you a living hope in himself. We see in this passage that your hope is living because Jesus is living. And ultimately, because you have a heavenly hope, Peter tells us that you can endure your hardships with joy because you know where your Savior is. You know that he's coming back and you know the share of the inheritance in heaven that he's bringing with him. So this evening we began by looking at the first words that Peter wrote in this, his first epistle. And I thought it would be appropriate for us to close by looking at some of the final words that he wrote in this letter. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray. our great and merciful God, we thank you for these encouraging words that you give us in your word. We thank you that no matter what season of life we may find ourselves in, you have given us a rock-solid anchor and hope in our Savior, Jesus Christ. He has told us that in this world we will have trouble, but that we can take heart because he has overcome the world. And by his obedience, by his death and resurrection, he has secured for us an imperishable inheritance in heaven no matter what we face in this world so as we go forward into another week we pray that you would remind us of these truths that you would keep this before our eyes so that no matter what you have prepared for us we may be faithful to you and lord we pray with the church and ask jesus that you would come again quickly to restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us. To you be the dominion and the glory forever and ever. Amen.