Series: There's Hope
Is Your Hope Alive?
1 Peter 1:3-9
We have started this book in the Bible which has as its theme "hope." These messages I'm going to share with you from I Peter are built around the theme "There's Hope."
The big fisherman, Simon Peter himself, is the one who has penned, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, this book in the Bible which has as its theme "hope." Today we're looking at I Peter 1, verses 3 through 9.
Do you know what it is to lose hope? Do you know what it is to come to an experience or place in your life and it seems to you there is no hope, there is nothing ahead, there is no future for you?
Simon Peter knew what it was to lose hope. He denied that he even knew the Lord. Shortly thereafter, the Lord was crucified on a cross, buried in a tomb, and Simon Peter lost his hope. In fact, his words could well have been the words spoken by the two disciples on the road to Emmaus when they were discussing the death of the Lord Jesus. They said, "We had hoped that He was the one." That's the way Simon Peter felt. He had lost his hope.
You cannot live a happy life apart from hope. You have to have hope if you're going to have any happiness in your life whatsoever.
The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is our hope. When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior, He brings that hope into our life. Ephesians 2, verse 12, tells us that those who do not know Christ, those who are without Christ, are without hope and they are without God in the world. How awful it is to try to live your life without any hope.
Hope is the anchor which stabilizes our life in stormy days. Hope is the telescope which brings the promises of God to the eye of faith enabling us to live our present existence on the basis of the future promises of God.
How awful not to have any hope whatsoever in your life. It's difficult enough to face fearless, sleepless nights in a hospital, but think about experiencing those fearless, sleepless nights without Christ and without hope. It's hard to deal with a wayward child, but think about dealing with that wayward child without Christ and without hope. It is hard to go through a painful divorce, but think about going through a painful divorce without Christ and without hope. It's difficult to hear bad news from a doctor about a terminal disease, but think about hearing that kind of news without Christ and without hope. What an awful thing to live without hope.
Something happened in the life of Simon Peter which restored his hope. In the light of that, which we will deal with soon, Simon Peter has given this book about hope, and you will discover that he has a great deal to say about hope. The word hope appears in the verses I read. You will notice the word hope appears again in verse 13. You will see that the word hope appears again in verse 21.
Simon Peter is the apostle of hope. He's going to talk to you and to me about what it is to really have hope in our life.
I want you to notice in these verses that he ties the word hope to two other important words. In verse 3 he uses the word hope, and in verse 7 he uses the word faith, and in verse 8 he uses the word love.
Those are the three words which describe the Christian experience, faith, hope and love. Hope is tied to those two words. That's why Peter, as he begins in verse 3, begins by praising the Lord. He says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," and he is going to praise the Lord for three spiritual realities which come into your life when you meet Jesus as your personal Savior.
I. A Living Hope.
First of all let's praise the Lord for I call a living hope. He says in verse 3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy." Mercy is something you get that you do not deserve. God has an abundant mercy for us. On the basis of that, it says that he has begotten us again. The word begotten means to have birthed us. He has birthed us. He's talking about the new birth experience.
When you realize you are a sinner and you invite the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart and life, the Bible says that you experience a new birth. You are born again. You become a member of the family of God. When you become a member of the family of God, that means that you are born into a family of hope.
You come to be in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is your hope. Now, because of your relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ, you have hope in the family of God.
Notice, it is that He has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
Something happened that restored hope in the life of Simon Peter. He had failed the Lord. The Lord Jesus had been crucified. Jesus had been buried, and yet the Bible says that three days after Jesus was buried in the tomb that Jesus rose again from the dead and that Jesus Christ is alive forevermore and the living Lord Jesus Christ said, "You go tell my disciples and Peter that I will meet them in
The source of your hope and my hope is none other than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ is dead, we don't have any hope. But if Jesus Christ is alive, and if He lives forevermore, then those who come to know Him as their personal Savior have a living hope that will last forever and forever and forever. That's good news! Our hope is based on reality. Our hope has its basis in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then he tells us a little bit about what that hope is in verse 4. He says, "To an inheritance." We all know what an inheritance is. Maybe you're going to get an inheritance. An inheritance is something you get because you're in a family.
I think about Bill Gate's children. They say Bill Gates lost a whole lot of money, several billion. The children born into Bill Gate's family are born into an unbelievable inheritance simply on the basis of the fact that they've been born into that family.
Prince Charles will one day inherit the throne of
When the Children of Israel went into
The same thing is true in the life of God's children. We have an inheritance. The word inheritance just brings together everything that God has promised us in the future.
You ask, "What has God promised us in the future?"
One of the things God's promised us is that when we die we're not going to stay dead. One of these days there's going to be a resurrection from the dead. God has also promised us that when we die we're going to a wonderful place called heaven. All of that is involved in the inheritance that God has promised.
God has promised us that we're going to have a brand-new body, that there won't be any heartache, there won't be any pain, there won't be any disease, and there won't be any death in that body. God has promised all of that as an inheritance because we know Jesus as our Savior.
Look at the three words He ties to that inheritance.
He says that our inheritance, what God has promised us in the future, is incorruptible. That means that it is not liable to decay. You may have an inheritance of a house. But it is possible for that house to be decayed and corrupted, but God has promised you an inheritance in heaven and it cannot decay. It is incorruptible.
Then he says it is undefiled. That means that it can't be stained by sin. It cannot be soiled.
Then he says that our inheritance is also one that does not fade away. It will never die. It will never decay. It will last forever. God says that I have given you an inheritance in the Lord and your hope is a living hope because your inheritance in the future is deathless, sinless, and fadeless. It is eternal in the heavens. So He has said, "I will give you an inheritance."
He says in the rest of verse 4, "Reserved in heaven for you." God is saying, "I've laid something up for you in heaven. I've reserved it up there." It is reserved up there, and God says that it remains up there. God has promised it to you. It is just as secure as if you had that inheritance right now. It is reserved in heaven for you.
Then he says in verse 5, "Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."
You say, "Preacher, I can comprehend that my inheritance is kept safe for me up there in glory.
But I have to live down here. I'm down here where the temptations are. I'm down here where the difficulties are. I'm down here where the problems are. I'm down here where the heartaches are. What about me? Am I safe?" That fifth verse says that we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
This is our eternal security system. Maybe some of you have a security system at your house. That security system supposedly is going to protect you and warn you when danger comes. God says that for the child of God, He has a security system. When it says that you are kept by the power of God, it was a word that was used in military terms in those days to guard and protect a city and to have a 24-hour guard.
God has promised you a 24-hour security system and that security system is none other than the power of God. In II Timothy 1, verse 12, it says that we are not ashamed because "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." We commit and the Lord keeps. We're talking about eternal security. You're kept by the power of God.
I think about Noah. The flood came. Noah was safe from the flood because he was kept by the power of God. Daniel went into the lion's den. He was protected from the lions. He was kept by the power of God. Think about the three Hebrew children. They went into the fiery furnace, but they felt no harm from the flames because they were kept by the power of God. You and I are just as secured.
We are just as guaranteed our future inheritance as we could possibly be because God is reserving it for us in heaven and He is keeping us down here so that one day we're going to get that inheritance in heaven. That is a living hope.
We have a living hope. No weapon can kill it. No coffin can confine it and no grave can hold it down. We are born again unto a living hope in the Lord Jesus.
II. An Enduring Faith.
In verse 6 he drops down here where we live. I've been talking about the future, about a heaven, about our inheritance in heaven but now he drops down where we live.
Verse 6
If you are using KJV, you have the word “temptations”. The word temptations here is not used in the sense of temptation to sin. It is used in terms of trials, difficulties and problems which come. He is writing to a group of people who are going through some tough times. He is writing to these people who are living in foreign places, in difficult cultures.
He is saying to them, "I know that you are in heaviness now because of many trials and difficulties." When he uses the word heaviness it is a word that carries the idea of the grief that troubles can bring, the heartache that can come by the troubles and the difficulties of life.
You may be in many troubles this morning. The word used to describe the temptations or trial is manifold, or various. It is an interesting word. The word means many colored. The word polka dot comes from this word. It means troubles of many colors. Trouble has its many colors.
They may be financial troubles. They may be marital troubles. There may be family troubles, health troubles. All kinds of troubles and difficulties come and they bring heaviness into our life.
He's going to talk about these troubles when they come and why troubles come and what happens when we experience these troubles and how we're to deal with these troubles.
For instance, he says, "You greatly rejoice, though now for a little while. . ." The first thing you need to notice is that the trouble you're going through right now seems like it's going to last forever, but this verse says it's just temporary.
All of us have troubles and all of us are in one of three situations when it comes to troubles. You are either coming out of a trouble. You are either in a trouble and you may not know it, but you're heading into a trouble. He's saying that you are in various troubles, but the good news is that it is not going on forever. You're coming out of the trouble one of these days. (it came to pass)
He also says, "if need be." There is a "need be" to our troubles. God has a purpose in our troubles. "OK, Preacher, I want to know what the purpose is." These verses of scriptures tell us what the purpose of trouble is by an illustration.
The illustration he uses is of gold refined by the fire.
verse 7
There are two main purposes for the troubles that come into our life. One of the purposes is to purify our faith. It is to purge our faith. You never really know how genuine your faith is until your faith is put to the test. The trial of your faith is to purge out some impurities.
The goldsmith will take the gold, and he will put it into a jar, a crucible. Then he will begin to heat that crucible. As the gold begins to melt and liquefy into hot liquid, the gold settles to the bottom and the impurities of the gold rise to the top. Then the goldsmith will take a skimmer and he will skim those impurities off the top.
That is exactly what happens when trouble comes. When you and I get into the fire of troubles and difficulties and when the fire of difficulties comes, it causes the impurities in our life to rise to the top. When the pressure is on, when the fire is on, and when you're going through the fire, you learn a great deal about yourself. All of the sin begins to rise to the top.
Somebody say, "That wasn't really me." Yes, when you're in trouble, how you act is the real you. You're just seeing you the way you really are. When we get into the fire of trouble, then all of the stubbornness, all of the selfishness, all of the ugliness and harshness, all of the bitterness that is in our life rises to the top and the Lord says, "Do you see that?"
You say, "Oh, my, I didn't know that was there." The Lord says, "Let Me skim that out of your life. Let me get that off the top of your life." One of the purposes God has for trouble is to purge us of impurities in our life.
Then he says in verse 7, "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold," the tested residue of your faith. Now he says that purpose of trouble is to purify our faith so that our faith will be genuine and real. We never know what our faith is really like until it goes through the fires of testing. So he says, "The trial of your faith is much more precious than of gold." He says that it will be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That goldsmith, looking at the gold in the fire, has eyes on the gold. He's got his hand on the thermostat and he's very careful. He'll never put too much fire on you. He'll never put the fire to the point that it will harm your faith but rather that it will purify your faith. You ask, "Preacher, how does the goldsmith know when its time to take the gold out of the fire?" When the goldsmith sees his own reflection in the gold, he knows that it's time to take the gold out of the fire.
Are you going through a hard time? Are you having troubles and it's straining your hope? You wonder when the fire is going to be over. Jesus is looking at you and me, and He wants us to become more like Him. That’s why it is so foolish to resist what God is doing in your life. Work with Him, cooperate in the process; it won’t have to last so long.
As our faith is put to the test and tried, when we become more like Jesus and He can see the image of Himself in our life, when we are like the Lord Jesus Christ, then Jesus takes us out of the test; and we have passed the test and we are waiting now for the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When the gold is taken out of the fire, it is well repaid for the fire because one day it will circle a king's finger or one day it will be a crown on a queen's head. God's purpose is, one day, that you I shine for Him in glory. Living hope has tied to it an enduring faith when the troubles come.
III. A Captivating Love.
He says in verse 8, "Whom, having not seen, ye love." He was talking, of course, to his original readers, and he was saying to them that you have never seen Jesus in the flesh, nor have you and I. Peter has seen Jesus in the flesh and yet Simon Peter says of them, "You haven't seen Him and yet you love Him."
Sometimes I wish I could have seen some scenes in the life of Jesus. Aren't there some things in the life of Jesus that you would like to have seen?
One of the things I would like to have seen was that night when Simon Peter was in the
Jesus said, "Come on." He jumped out and walked on the water. Then of course we know what happened. He got his eyes off Jesus. It always happens when you get your eyes off Jesus that you start sinking. I would like to have seen that scene.
I would like to have seen how Jesus looked at Simon as He reached down and got him. "Bless your heart Simon. You did more than most folks. You at least got out of the boat." Wouldn't you have like to have seen that scene in the life of Jesus?
You and I have not seen Jesus with these physical eyes. "Whom, having not seen." But Jesus said in John 20, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." You and I are in the category of those who have not seen. We have not seen Jesus Christ with these physical eyes and yet as a born again child of God as we study the Bible, the Holy Spirit paints a picture on the canvas of our heart of the lovely Lord Jesus Christ. When we see Him with the eyes of faith, we love Him.
That's what the Christian life is all about, loving Jesus. Jesus loves you. One of the sweetest songs we ever learned when we were little was "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong." Loving Jesus is really the key to it all. Loving Jesus Christ is the key to the Christian life. Jesus wants us to love Him. He loves us with a love that is eternal. He loves us with a love that is out of sight, that is everlasting. In return, He wants us to love Him.
I heard about a little girl who had a lot of dolls. One day her mom came in and found the little girls in the midst of her dolls and the little girl was weeping. Mom said, "Darling, what's the matter?" She said, "Mama. I love them and love them and love them and they never love me back."
I wonder sometimes if the Lord Jesus doesn't say to the heavenly Father, "Father, I love them and I love them and I love them and they never love Me back."
Have you told Jesus lately that you love Him? You say, "Preacher, I'm a man. That's not manly." The manliest thing you can ever do is to love Jesus Christ. Have you told Him lately that you love Him?
When was the last time you got alone with your Bible and having read about His wonderful love for you and all He has done for you, said from the depths of your heart, "My Jesus I love thee. I know Thou art mine. For thee all the follies of sin I resign. My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou. If ever I love Thee, My Jesus 'tis now."
Tied to this necklace of hope is the bead of loving. Then He strings another bead on that necklace, believing. He says
