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So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. ²Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— ³if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

I want to use my feeble attempt today to motivate each of you to get into God’s Word consistently. More than the food you eat, you must have God’s Word! Cut out of your life other books, internet, and television, and even some sleep itself, if you must; but you must have God’s Word in your life!

That is Peter’s point: We must have God’s Word to grow in our salvation.

The Bible declares that the root cause of our problems is our sin. By confronting our sin and presenting God’s remedy for it, the Bible brings lasting healing.

So I try to preach the Bible in its pure, not-deceitful form, because then it confronts us with where our lives have gone astray and shows us God’s way to get back on the path.

The Bible, if you take it straight, tells you the honest truth about yourself. It exposes the very thoughts and motives of your heart so that you have no where to hide (Heb. 4:12-13).

It is not uncommon, after a lesson/sermon, to have someone come up to me and ask, “Did anyone tell you about what I went through this past week?”

When I assure them that no one told me anything, they say, “It seemed like you knew everything and you were aiming that sermon directly at me.”

It isn’t me; it’s the Bible! We tend to deceive and flatter ourselves. But the Word of God cuts through the deception and lays out the honest truth so that we can deal with our problems.

No Christian can stay the way he is; and Peter urges his people to remove some evil things and to set their hearts on that which alone can nourish life.

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. The word therefore ties Peter’s following words with 1 Peter 1:22, where Peter had explained that believers’ new lives in Christ should result in genuine mutual love so that they would love one another deeply. Such love binds believers together as they face struggles and persecution. Believers need to get rid of any attitude or hindrance that could threaten this love for brothers and sisters in Christ.^[1]

There are things which must be stripped off. “Put away” is the word for stripping off one’s clothes. There are things of which the Christian must divest himself as he would strip off a soiled garment.

Peter listed several types of sin to remove from our lives. The sins Peter listed here fight against love and cause dissension among believers.

• Malice means doing evil despite the good that has been received; the desire to harm other people. Malice may be hidden behind good actions. Christians should have no part in evil actions toward others (see Colossians 3:8; James 1:21).
• Deceit means deliberately tricking or misleading by lying. This would correct many of the excesses of our day. I meet many Christians who are heavily subjective. They operate on a feeling level, devoid of solid theological content. Others emphasize theological content, but they’re afraid of emotions. The Word of God ought to fill our minds with the knowledge of God and move our hearts with His majesty and love.
• Hypocrisy means that people say one thing but do another; playacting; presenting good motives that mask selfish desire.
• Envy means desiring something possessed by someone else. This causes discontent and resentment as believers make unhealthy comparisons to one another. It also makes them unable to be thankful for the good that comes to others.

There is envy. It may be said that envy is the last sin to die. It reared its ugly head even in the apostolic band. The other ten were envious of James and John, when they seemed to steal a march upon them in the matter of precedence in the coming Kingdom (Mark 10:41).

Even at the last supper the disciples were disputing about who should occupy the seats of greatest honor (Luke 22:24).

So long as self remains active within a man’s heart there will be envy in his life.

• Slander means destroying another’s good reputation by lies, gossip, rumor-spreading, etc. Malice often manifests itself through slander. We should not treat fellow Christians the way the world treats us (3:16).

Few things are so attractive as hearing or repeating spicy gossip. Disparaging gossip is something which everyone admits to be wrong and which at the same time almost everyone enjoys; and yet there is nothing more productive of heartbreak and nothing is so destructive of brotherly love and Christian unity.

Most of us wince to admit it, but having “the goods” on someone and commanding a group’s attention by reporting our news is just plain fun. There is a certain amount of power to have information! Some cannot stop themselves and even appear to like to share intimate details of someone else’s weakness.

Peter warns that our conversation should not slip into slander. You’re getting close to the border when you are glad that the subject is out of earshot. You’ve crossed the border when your report begins: “It doesn’t leave this room, but …”

If you cannot avoid gossip or spreading rumors, tell your story to a tape recorder, and don’t bother using a tape. Real friends don’t broadcast each other’s weaknesses. Real Christians strive to build each other up in love. When it comes to gossip, don’t pass it on.

Spanish proverb: Whoever gossips to you will gossip of you.

There is something on which the Christian must set his heart. He must yearn for the unadulterated milk of the word (logos).

Logos is the Greek for word…belonging to the word. It is the word of God which is in his mind; and we think that what he means here is that the Christian must desire with his whole heart the nourishment which comes from the word of God, for by that nourishment he can grow until he reaches salvation itself. In face of all the evil of the heathen world the Christian must strengthen his soul with the pure food of the word of God.

This food of the word is unadulterated…that is to say, there is not the slightest admixture of anything evil in it. The Christian is to yearn for this milk of the word; yearn, which is a strong word.

For the sincere Christian, to study God’s word is not a labor but a delight, for he knows that there his heart will find the nourishment for which it longs.

Peter says that we should be as motivated as a newborn babe is for his mother’s milk.

God has designed a mother’s milk as the perfect food for newborn babies. It will immunize her baby from many illnesses and nourish her baby for growth. God’s Word will protect Christians from the many spiritual diseases which abound and nourish them to grow in the Lord.

A mother’s milk will make her baby grow for months without any other food. God’s Word will nourish Christians so that they “grow toward salvation” (2:2). Peter means salvation in its ultimate sense, which includes everything that God has provided for us who are His children. We never reach a place in this life where we can stop growing.

One thing about kids is that they’re excited about growing. Just about every home with children has a growth chart. Every few months you measure your kids and say, “Wow, look how much you’ve grown since last time!” God’s children should be that excited about growing in respect to their salvation. Just as physical growth is not instant or readily seen, so with spiritual growth. You probably won’t see it day to day. But if you keep feeding on the milk of the Word, you will be nourished toward growth.

I didn’t understand this analogy until we had children of our own. Newborn babies have an intense craving for their mother’s milk! It doesn’t matter if it’s 3 a.m. If they’re hungry, they let you know about it and don’t stop letting you know about it until they get what they’re after!

You can stick your finger in their mouth and they’ll suck on it for a minute (and what powerful cheek muscles they have!). But then they realize that they aren’t getting any milk, and they’ll spit out your finger and scream for the real thing.

The metaphor of the Christian as a baby and the word of God as the milk whereby he is nourished is common in the New Testament.

“A believer should count it a wasted day when he does not learn something new from or is not more deeply enriched by the truth of God’s Word.… Scripture is food for the believer’s growth and power—and there is no other. The church today ignores the exposition and application of Scripture at its peril, as the warning of Hosea to Israel suggests: ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’ (Hosea 4:6). The church cannot operate on truth it is not taught; believers cannot function on principles they have not learned. The most noble are still those who search the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11).”^[2]

Paul thinks of himself as the nurse who cares for the infant Christians of Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2:7).

He thinks of himself as feeding the Corinthians with milk for they are not yet at the stage of meat (1 Corinthians 3:2); and the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews blames his people for being still at the stage of milk when they should have gone on to maturity (Hebrews 5:12; 6:2).

It is this nourishment with the milk of the word which makes a Christian grow up and grow on until he reaches salvation.

Peter finishes this introduction with an allusion to Psalm 34:8. “You are bound to do this,” he writes, “if you have tasted the kindness of God.”

Here is something of the greatest significance. The fact that God is gracious is not an excuse for us to do as we like, depending on him to overlook it; it lays on us an obligation to toil towards deserving his graciousness and love.

The kindness of God is not an excuse for laziness in the Christian life; it is the greatest of all incentives to effort.^[3]

The question is, How do you get that kind of motivation for the Word of God? Positively, focus on the kindness of the Lord (2:3).

“If [“since”] you have tasted that the Lord is kind.”

Peter here is referring especially to the Lord’s kindness or grace that was shown to us when we trusted Him as Savior and Lord and were immersed in water in order to have our sins forgiven.

If you’re saved, you have tasted of the Lord’s kindness, because you know that though you deserved His judgment, He showed you mercy.  “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

How to drink in God’s Word:

A. Read it.

I am amazed at how many Christians do not read their Bibles! Maybe you’re thinking, “But I’m not a reader.” Learn to be a reader! God chose to communicate His Word in written form. Reading is a learned skill that most people can master. While you’re learning to read, get the Bible on tape and listen to it. But you also need to learn to read.

If you’re new as Christian, start in the New Testament. Read it through several times….and there is no need to rush…take your time.

Read the Psalms and Proverbs (Carl Brecheen: one chapter for each day of the month.)

Then, tackle the whole Bible. You can read through the Bible in a year if you read 15-20 minutes a day. You won’t grasp it all in a lifetime. But pray that God would show you something about Himself, about yourself, and about how He wants you to live. Like that newborn babe, don’t let anything keep you from your feeding times!

B. Study it.

It’s not just milk; it’s rational milk. You’ve got to think or meditate on it to understand it. Observe it carefully: What does the text say? To quote Yogi Berra, “You can see a lot just by looking.”

Interpret it by comparing Scripture with Scripture and asking, What does this passage mean in its context and in light of other Scripture? Apply it prayerfully: What does it mean to me? How do I need to obey it? Memorize certain portions, so that God can use them in your life during the day. Listen to the Word preached every chance you get.

C. Taste it.

The image of milk and of tasting the Lord’s kindness brings up the fact that the Word is not just to fill your head with knowledge.

It is to fill your life with delight as you get to know the Divine author and enjoy Him in all His perfections. Taste points both to personal experience and enjoyment. I can’t taste for you, nor you for me. We can only taste for ourselves.

To taste something, we’ve got to experience it up close. You can see and hear and smell at a distance, but you can only taste something by touching it to your tongue.

You can only taste God’s Word by drawing near to God and personally appropriating the riches of knowing Him. Once you like the taste of something, you don’t just eat it to live; you live to eat it. You want it as often as you can get it. God’s Word is that way for all who have tasted His kindness.

Conclusion

If you don’t have a craving for God’s Word, there could be several reasons. Maybe you’ve never tasted the Lord’s kindness in salvation. You need to believe that He died for your sins and that He offers His salvation to you as a free gift. Take it! And start feeding on the Bible.

You may not have a craving for God’s Word because of sin in your life. Someone has said that God’s Word will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from God’s Word. Confess and forsake it! And get back into the Bible.

You may have ruined your appetite by feeding on the junk food of this world. “Hunger makes a good cook,” as the saying goes.

If you don’t sense your great need for God and His Word, it may be because you’ve filled up on junk like television. Shut it off!

Or, maybe you’ve been filling up on the junk food being sold at Christian book stores under the label of Christian, but which waters down the pure Word of God with modern man’s wisdom.

Such junk food makes you feel full, but it doesn’t nourish the soul. Don’t waste your time reading it! There are some excellent Christian books that will help you to understand and apply God’s truth. They’re well worth reading.

But above all else, read your Bible! Hunger for God’s truth. Drink it in like a nursing infant. You’ve got to have it above all else if you want to grow in your salvation.

^[1] Bruce B. Barton, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, Jude, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Pub., 1995), 48–49.

^[2] John MacArthur, 1 & 2 Peter: Courage in Times of Trouble, MacArthur Bible Studies (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, 2000), 21.

^[3] William Barclay, ed., The Letters of James and Peter, The Daily Study Bible Series (Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox Press, 1976), 191–193.

This passage begins the longest section of First Peter. Remember: the believers were suffering terrible persecution. They had lost their homes, property, money, possessions, and friends.

They were being persecuted because of Christ. They were living for Christ and proclaiming the salvation and hope of eternal life in Him. People were willing to hear about salvation, hope, and eternal life in Christ; but they did not want to hear about repentance, that they had to repent in order to be saved and to receive eternal life.

They were just like people of all ages: they did not want to hear about a Lord to whom they had to give all they were and had.

There was only one message that could encourage and strengthen them: the glorious message of the gospel of salvation. They needed to keep their eyes upon the grace and salvation of God.

1. Get Your Mind Ready, 1:13–16

1:13 Therefore prepare your minds for action.  The word therefore ties Peter’s following challenge with the previous passage. Because the prophets had foretold the great privileges of the gospel and, with even the angels, long to understand them better, believers should show the same kind of earnest and alert concern regarding the way they live.

Peter challenged these scattered believers to prepare your minds for action or “roll up your sleeves.” Obedience does not always come naturally or easily. In Greek, the phrase is “gird up the loins of your minds,” picturing a person “girding up his loins” by tucking his long robes into the belt around his waist in order to run (see, for example, 1 Kings 18:46; 2 Kings 4:29; 9:1).

The word “minds” refers to spiritual and mental attitudes. To lead holy lives in an evil world, the believers would need a new mind-set. Like “robes” that are already “girded up,” their minds should be set and prepared, ready for “action” at God’s prompting.

 Be self-controlled. The believers needed to monitor and restrain their sexual and material desires, anger, and words. “Be self-controlled” is also translated “discipline yourselves.” Even “good” things in life can take control if they are allowed to—such as one’s career, education, or creative pursuits.

 Set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed.  This sentence forms a bridge from the first section to the remainder of the letter.

The effective Christians of history have been men and women of great personal discipline—mental discipline, discipline of the body, discipline of the tongue, and discipline of the emotions.

1:14    As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.  All believers are part of God’s family; we are his children. Children all have different character traits; parents often marvel at how different each of their own children are. Yet despite the many differences among God’s children, we ought to all have one characteristic in common: We are obedient.

Peter first explained what obedient children do not do (he then explains what they should do in this verse). Believers ought not to live in the same manner that they lived before they were saved. They must break with the past and depend on the power of the Holy Spirit to help them overcome evil desires and conform themselves to God’s will.

1:15    But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.  After people commit their lives to Christ, they usually still feel a pull to return to their old ways.

God’s holiness means that he is completely separated from sin and evil. Holiness pervades his character—he is holiness. He is the opposite of anything profane.

1:16    Because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”  Peter quoted the Old Testament Scriptures, which would be familiar to the Jewish Christians in his audience, to confirm his words in 1:15.

2. Live on Earth in the Fear & Reverence of God, 1:17–21

How can we stand against the trials and temptations of life? When we are severely attacked to such a point that we cannot understand, how can we bear it? Is there anything anyplace that can help us to bear it? Yes! There is the fear of God. If a person fears God and fears Him enough, he will stand against temptation and he will endure the trials of life.

Scripture proclaims that man must fear God or else he will be doomed forever. Therefore, whatever is causing man’s psychological and emotional problems, it is not the fear of God, not the true fear of God.

What does Scripture mean by the fear of God? It means two things.

• To fear God means to hold Him in fear, dread, and terror.
• To fear God means to hold Him in awe, to reverence the holiness, power, knowledge, wisdom, judgment and wrath of God.

1:17 If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds.

God judges and disciplines all people impartially according to their deeds. God hears all prayers and sees all sin. Reverent fear is not the fear of a slave for a ruthless master, but the healthy and fervent respect of a believer for the all-powerful God.

It is fear of offending him, of taking him for granted and becoming sloppy in our Christian lives. We should not assume that our privileged status as God’s children gives us freedom to do whatever we want.

There is no fear like that which love begets. We fear God with the fear of the love that cannot endure the thought of giving pain to the one loving and loved.

1:18–19 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers. Another reason that we should fear displeasing God is that he paid the enormous price to buy us back from sin. The word redeemed was used when someone paid money to buy back a slave’s freedom. In Old Testament times, a person’s debts could result in that person’s being sold as a slave. The next of kin could redeem the slave (buy his or her freedom), a transaction involving money or valuables of some kind. Yet all valuables are perishable—even silver and gold are susceptible to corruption. The transaction God made to buy us back from sin is not refundable; it is a permanent transaction.

From the very beginning God said, “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Leviticus 17:11).

But the blood mentioned here is the precious blood of Christ. Only the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross was effective atonement for our sins. Christ stands in our place, having paid the penalty of death for our sin, having completely satisfied God’s demands.

1:20    He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Christ’s sacrifice for the world’s sins was not an afterthought, not something God decided to do when the world spun out of control.

This plan was set in motion by the all-knowing, eternal God before the creation of the world. In eternity past, God chose his people (1:2) and planned that Christ would redeem them. Christ has always existed with God (John 1:1), but was revealed in these last times to the world in his incarnation.

1:21    Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Only through the death of Christ on the cross could sinful humanity approach the holy God.

3. Love One Another Fervently (1:22-25)

There is no greater force than love. If two people truly love each other, they will do anything for the other. There is no greater bond on earth than true love. This is especially true of the love between believers.

Believers are to have a different kind of love than neighbors have for one another. The love that believers are to have for one another is what the Greek calls philadelphia love, a very special kind of love. Philadelphia love means brotherly love, the very special love that exists between the brothers and sisters within a loving family, brothers and sisters who truly cherish each other.

⇒ We are to have unfeigned love for our Christian brothers. Unfeigned means genuine, sincere, without pretension, hypocrisy, or play-acting. We are not to pretend, play, and act like we love one another; we are to love one another genuinely and sincerely.

“See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” The word fervently (ektenos) “does not mean ‘with warmth’ but rather ‘with full intensity’.” It literally means to stretch love fully out or to love one another in an all out manner.

This is the love believers are to have for one another, a philadelphia kind of love. Now note: there are three reasons why we are to love one another fervently.

Reason 1: you have purified your souls (vs. 22)

Reason 2: you are born again through the Word of God (vs. 23)

Reason 3: your flesh withers and falls away (vs. 24-25)

1:22    Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart.  Believers ought to be holy because of who God is and what he has done on our behalf. Peter was pointing out that their conversion had changed their lives. The transformation that Christ had made in their lives was toward purity and holiness.

This change was not meant to be internal only; it must be acted out in their daily behavior, attitudes, and conduct. This is one of the strongest statements of brotherly love in the New Testament, for it virtually makes brotherly love the goal of our conversion. Peter expected that growth in purity and holiness would result in deeper love among Christians. Not merely outward appearance or profession, genuine mutual love for our Christian brothers and sisters comes from the heart.

In order to do this, we must willingly let go of evil thoughts and feelings toward fellow believers. Peter used the word philadelphia (love of the brothers) in the phrase “genuine mutual love,” and then changed to the more intense form of the word love, agapao, to describe strong and deep love in the next phrase, love one another deeply.

1:23    For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.  Peter gave the second reason to love others: Believers have a common ground in Christ. We have all been born again; we are sinners saved by grace. Because we have all received new life in Christ, we should be motivated to live to please God, obey the truth, keep ourselves pure, and love our Christian brothers and sisters.

The change that took place in our lives is eternal. Our new birth was not of perishable seed, meaning of human origin, so that we will one day wither and die; rather our new birth originated from imperishable seed, described as the living and enduring word of God.

1:24–25        For “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” Quoting Isaiah 40:6–8, Peter reminded believers that everything in this life—possessions, accomplishments, people—will eventually fade away and disappear.

Only God’s will, word, and work are permanent. We are mortal, but God’s word is eternal and unfailing.

 That word is the good news that was announced to you. What gives reason for life? What gives peace and patience in the middle of suffering and persecution? Why have hope? Because they believed the good news that had been announced (or proclaimed) to them through the apostles or other believers.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, ¹¹inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. ¹²It 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.

This is a great description of salvation. It describes the wonder and greatness of salvation, the glorious truth that God saves men from death and exalts them into the glories of heaven. Salvation is so glorious that even the angels are aroused to look into it and to understand what it means.

(1) We are told two things about the prophets. First, they searched and enquired about the salvation which was to come. Second, the Spirit of Christ told them about Christ.

Here we have the great truth that inspiration depends on two things—the searching mind of man and the revealing Spirit of God. This passage tells us that God’s truth comes only to the man who searches for it. In inspiration there is an element which is human and an element which is divine; it is the product at one and the same time of the search of man’s mind and the revelation of God’s Spirit.

Further, this passage tells us that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, was always operative in this world. Wherever men have glimpsed beauty, wherever they have laid hold on truth, wherever they have had longings for God, the Spirit of Christ was there.

Never has there been any time in any nation when the Spirit of Christ was not moving men to seek God and guiding them to find him. Sometimes they have been blind and deaf, sometimes they have misinterpreted that guidance, sometimes they have grasped but fragments of it, but always that revealing Spirit has been there to guide the searching mind.

(2) This passage tells us that the prophets spoke of the sufferings and the glory of Christ. Such passages as Psalm 22 and Isaiah 52:13–53:12 found their consummation and fulfillment in the sufferings of Christ. We need not think that the prophets foresaw the actual man Jesus. What they did foresee was that one would come some day in whom their dreams and visions would all be fulfilled.

(3) This passage tells us for whom the prophets spoke. It was the message of the glorious deliverance of God that they brought to men. That was a deliverance which they themselves never experienced. Sometimes God gives a man a vision, but says to the man himself, “Not yet!”

Introduction

When Christians encounter suffering, they often lose their perspective and begin to complain about things which are really not as bad as they appear. Tears in our eyes distort our perspective.

Those to whom Peter writes are undergoing suffering for their faith. Peter does not offer them pity or sympathy. How can one be pitied in circumstances in which they should rejoice? But often we do pity ourselves when we suffer. We become absorbed in the “pain” of our lives and lose perspective that God is using our suffering for His glory and our good.

As we live our lives in this sinful, fallen world among those who hate God, we do suffer for the time being, but our suffering has been sent our way by God to produce a very positive effect. On the one hand, it demonstrates the reality of a genuine faith, and on the other it strengthens our faith—all to the glory of God. In this we are to rejoice as we await the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls (1:6-9).

In verses 10-12, Peter helps his fellow-believers keep their suffering in perspective by making two comparisons. He first compares the Old Testament prophets to New Testament saints. Secondly, Peter compares New Testament saints to angels. What he concludes from this comparison might surprise you.

How often we look back to the Old Testament saints to whom God spoke directly and wish we could have lived in their times. “Ah, for the good old days,” we reason. “If only I could have lived then and walked in such intimacy with God. If only I could have had God tell me personally what to do and what He was going to do.” Peter takes the nostalgia out of this kind of thinking and brings us to a very different view of our present circumstances.

Profiting From the Prophets (1:10-12a) … The Contribution of the Prophets

The Old Testament prophets contributed far more to us than they realized at the time of their prophecies. As Peter calls our attention to these prophets, he points out the ways in which their ministry touched our lives. Consider the following:

(1) The Old Testament prophets suffered greatly due to their calling, and as such, they provide us with an example of perseverance in persecution.

Like our Lord in the text above, when Peter calls our attention to the prophets he seems to be reminding us that we must also suffer like the prophets for the sake of Christ and His kingdom. The blessings we have received through these prophets, which Peter summarizes in our text, came at great cost to them.

(2) God spoke to us through the prophets because they were inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.

(3) The prophets of old were speaking (prophesying) of a future day. The prophets spoke to the men and women of their own time, but they also spoke of things yet to come to pass. They spoke to men of God’s program for the future, so they might live in the light of the promises of divine blessing and divine judgment.

(4) The Old Testament prophets spoke of the salvation to be accomplished in the future, a salvation by grace. They spoke of God’s salvation by grace and not by works. Here, Peter sums up all of God’s future blessings in one word: grace (1:10).

(5) Specifically, the prophets of old spoke of the coming of Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, the Messiah, so that the things they foretold are those which are now proclaimed by those who herald the good news of the Gospel.

(6) The prophets spoke of salvation in terms of sufferings, followed by glories. The use of the plural in reference to both suffering and glory is noteworthy, for just as the sufferings of our Lord were many (see Hebrews 5:7-10), so the glories will be many which flow from His death, resurrection, and ascension.

(7) The salvation of which the Old Testament prophets spoke was a salvation for the Gentiles, as well as the Jews. For a long time, Peter, like his Jewish brethren, resisted this reality. So firmly is this truth now embedded in Peter’s heart and mind that he speaks of the Old Testament prophets as having ministered so as to serve the Gentiles.

The Confusion of the Prophets

It may be difficult to grasp that Peter is contrasting our understanding of the gospel with the “ignorance” of the Old Testament prophets. Consider with me the reasons for this “ignorance” of which Peter speaks.

(1) First, we must realize that being a prophet means you have a message, not that you understand its meaning. Peter’s words indicate the prophets had the message of salvation, by grace, through Jesus Christ, for Jews and Gentiles. But he also indicates they did not fully comprehend all of this. They conveyed the message of God’s coming salvation, but the meaning of their message was not known until Christ actually came.

(2) Many prophecies were not even recognized as prophecies. Few of the prophecies fulfilled in the first coming of our Lord were recognized as such at the time they were given or even later on. When we come to the Gospels, we frequently find an expression like this: “that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled … ” (Matthew 1:23).

The prophecy of the virgin birth of Christ in Isaiah 7:14 was not regarded as a prophecy until after its fulfillment. So it was also with the prophecies that Jesus would come up from Egypt (Matthew 2:15, citing Hosea 11:1) and that He would be called a Nazarene (Matthew 2:23). Jesus having come from Nazareth was viewed as a problem rather than as a prophecy (John 1:44-46).

Unless Paul had told us, who would have imagined that our Lord was the Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7) or that He was the “rock” which followed Israel in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:4)?

(3) Old Testament prophecies were often perplexing, because of unclear distinctions, or apparent contradictions, which would not be harmonized until Christ’s coming. This confusion is evident in the answer given to our Lord’s question:

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He began asking His disciples, saying, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; some Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets” (Matthew 16:13-14).

The people were unclear about which prophecies were truly Messianic and which were not. They were not clear even about just who the Messiah would be.

Jesus capitalized on this ignorance by asking this question of His opponents:

Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They said to Him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying, THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT THINE ENEMIES BENEATH THEY FEET?”’ If David then calls Him ‘Lord’, how is He his son?” (Matthew 22:41-44).

They had been asking Him questions seeking to embarrass and discredit Him publicly. Let them answer His question. How could the Messiah be David’s Lord and David’s Son at the same time? Here was another mystery, solved only in the coming of our Lord as God incarnate.

(4) The prophets were given only one small piece of a much larger puzzle. The prophets had trouble understanding the meaning of their “piece” of the puzzle, let alone being able to see the entire picture of God’s prophetic plan and purpose.

The Prophets’ Private Revelation

While the Old Testament prophets made a monumental contribution to the cause of the gospel, they were confused. They were confused because they could not understand how the events they predicted would take place. Our text tells us they carefully searched and studied their own prophecies, “seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow” (1:11).

They would have to wait to learn the answers to all their questions. But let these prophets know this: they were a link in the chain of God’s eternal purpose to save a people for Himself, a people that would include both Jews and Gentiles. Theirs was the privilege of playing a part in this plan. They, like every saint throughout history, would have to live by faith, suffering now while assured of the glory of God, their future hope.

The Saints’ Advantage Over Angels (1:12b)

… things into which angels long to look. (parakúpsō, from pará (3844), to, beside, and kúptō (2955), to bend, stoop. To stoop down near or by something, bend forward or near in order to look at something more closely.^[1])

Amazingly, with all the glory we find associated with angels, Peter tells us their eyes are fixed on the earth. There is a greater glory yet to be fulfilled, and the angels cannot wait to witness it. They, like the prophets of old, do not seem to understand in advance just how these things will come to pass. Peter informs us of their intense interest in the things presently taking place on earth in light of what is yet to come.

Conclusion

• Do we feel overwhelmed by our suffering? Our troubles are no match for the Old Testament prophets.
• Do we wish we could live in the “good old days” when God spoke directly to men? No one has ever had it as good as we do now. Why? Because Christ has come, and the mysteries concerning His first coming are now openly proclaimed in the preaching of the gospel. What the prophets, who were “insiders” in days gone by, yearned to know, we now know.

These very angels would seemingly be happy to change places with us. Their eyes are fixed upon the earth, eager to see the unfolding of the glory of God as He fulfills His promise of an eternal kingdom.

Before us have gone the prophets, who ministered to us by speaking of the things we now enjoy in Christ. We now understand those things which were a mystery to them.

While we may suffer, few will ever experience the persecution that was theirs. And yet they were faithful to their calling, fulfilling their mission and ministry to us.

The angels too are a part of the divine plan, and they also eagerly look on to see how God’s plans and promises will be fulfilled. No one has ever been more privileged than we. With this firm foundation, we can go about our lives unshaken by persecution and tribulation, with our hope fixed on the grace that is yet to come.

^[1] Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).

I have to admit to each of us that the theme we’re going to be looking at today is repeated by Jesus, Paul, James, and now, Peter. We’re going to need to work hard to receive them as if for the first time, or we might be prone to close our minds and not let them have the effect intended.

We often repeat words at the communion table…but could we ever forget the meaning of those words in the effort ‘to remember’ on a weekly basis. My attitude: I need to hear them over and over again.

Could we ever tire of hearing these words again and again…from Psalm 103:8-14? The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. ⁹He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. ¹⁰He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. ¹¹For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; ¹²as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. ¹³As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. ¹⁴For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. (ESV)

The words we hear so often in the New Testament? The encouragement to rejoice in the midst of trials or hardships. Here we go, from the apostle Peter: 1 Peter 1:6–9 (ESV) In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷so 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. ⁸Though 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, ⁹obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Any thinking person can look around and see that life is bombarded with all kinds of trials and temptations. There are all kinds of trials, such as …sickness, disease, suffering, sorrows, ridicule, abuse, loss, disappointment, criticism, loneliness, and emptiness.

There are also all kinds of temptations such as …greed, selfishness, hoarding, drunkenness, deceit, strife, immorality, indulgence, backbiting, whispering, revellings, drugs, anger, gluttony, envy, jealousy, and uncleanness.

The list of trials and temptations in the world are as unlimited as acts of behavior. For every act there can be the sin of too much or the sin of too little, the sins of commission or the sins of omission. Life is filled with trials and temptations.

Someone asked C.S. Lewis, “Why do the righteous suffer?” His reply: “Why not? They’re the only ones who can take it.”

Peter introduces the problem of suffering for the first time in the 6^th verse of the first chapter. Suffering proves to be the theme of his epistle. Peter informs us that suffering is indeed a part of the normal Christian experience.

Peter comes to the actual situation in life in which his readers found themselves. Their Christianity had already made them unpopular, but now they were facing almost certain persecution.

Soon the storm was going to break and life was going to be an agonizing thing. In the face of that threatening situation Peter in effect reminds them of reasons why they can stand anything that may come upon them.

• Because of what they are able to look forward to. At the end there is for them the magnificent inheritance, eternal life with God. We have taken it to mean in the time when the world as we know it will come to an end; but the Greek can mean when the worst comes to the worst. It is then, when things have reached their limit, that the saving power of Christ will be displayed.

For the Christian persecution and trouble are not the end; beyond lies the glory; and in the hope of that glory he can endure anything that life brings to him.

It sometimes happens that a man has to undergo a painful operation or course of treatment; but he gladly accepts the pain and the discomfort because of the renewed health and strength which lie beyond.

It is one of the basic facts of life that a man can endure anything so long as he has something to look forward to—and the Christian can look forward to the ultimate joy.

2. If they remember that every trial is, in fact, a test. Before gold is pure it has to be tested in the fire. The trials which come to a man test his faith and out of them that faith can emerge stronger than ever it was before.

The rigors which the athlete has to undergo are not meant to make him collapse but to make him able to develop more strength and staying-power. In this world trials are not meant to take the strength out of us, but to put the strength into us.

In this connection there is something most suggestive in the language Peter uses. He says that the Christian for the moment may well have to undergo various trials. The Greek is poikilos, which literally means many-colored (variety, different forms).

Peter uses that word only one other time and it is to describe the grace of God (1 Peter 4:10).

Our troubles may be many-colored, but so is the grace of God; there is no ‘color’ in the human situation which that grace cannot match. There is a grace to match every trial and there is no trial without its grace.

The problem has vexed philosophers since they first asked questions: Why does an all-powerful, good God permit suffering? To which most people add: “And if someone has to suffer, why me?”

Instead of answering these questions on the philosophical level, Christians face suffering by adopting a new set of responses:

Confidence that God knows, plans, and directs our lives for the good. It’s hard to calculate sometimes, but God always provides his love and strength for us. God leads us toward a better future.

Perseverance when facing grief, anger, sorrow, and pain. Christians believe in expressing grief, but we should never give in to bitterness and despair.

Courage because with Jesus as Brother and Savior, we need not be afraid. He who suffered for us will not abandon us. Jesus carries us through everything.

(3) At the end of it, when Jesus Christ appears, they will receive from him praise and glory and honor. Again and again in this life we make our biggest efforts and do our best work, not for pay or profit, but in order to see the light in someone’s eyes and to hear his word of praise.

These things mean more than anything else in the world. The Christian knows that, if he endures, he will in the end hear the Master’s “Well done!”

Here is the recipe for endurance when life is hard and faith is difficult. We can stand up to things because of the greatness to which we can look forward, because every trial is another test to strengthen and to purify our faith, and because at the end of it Jesus Christ is waiting to say, “Well done!” to all his faithful servants.

Like other New Testament writers, Peter wants us to understand that suffering is a normal part of the Christian life. He tells us not to be surprised “at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12).

Peter himself had felt it. After being flogged and warned to speak no further in the name of Jesus, he and the other apostles “went on their way … rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41). That’s joy from the pits!

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷so that the tested genuineness of your faith. The trials that these Christians endured have a notion of necessity: they “have had to suffer.” Verse 7 especially seems to indicate that they “had” to suffer in order to prove their faith genuine. These sufferings, brought about by evil people, were allowed by God for a purpose.

Christians became the target of persecution for four main reasons:

(1) They refused to worship the emperor as a god and thus were viewed as atheists and traitors.

(2) They refused to worship at pagan temples, so business for these moneymaking enterprises dropped wherever Christianity took hold.

(3) They didn’t support the Roman ideals of self, power, and conquest, and the Romans scorned the Christian ideal of self-sacrificing service.

(4) They exposed and rejected the horrible immorality of pagan culture.

Peter made the point that no individual’s suffering escapes God’s notice and control. God uses that person’s experience according to his infinitely wise plans for that person.

Grief and suffering do not happen without cause or reason. While it may never be clear to us, God must be trusted to carry out his purposes, even in times of trial.

Peter made it clear to these suffering believers that even as they grieved now (in their present existence), it was only for a little while compared to the glorious eternity awaiting them. Because of this they could rejoice, even as they suffered grief.

Peter pointed out that grief and joy can be simultaneous in the Christian life. Grief is the natural response to the difficulties in this fallen world, but faith looks forward to an eternity with God and rejoices.

When we are faced with some trial or temptation, we draw nearer to God. We cry out to God more than when things go well. We even tend to clean up our lives in order to secure His help us as we go through the trial.

There is another fact that should be noted as well. When our faith is tried and proven, when we walk strongly through the trials and temptations of life, the world sees it.

Each experience of trial helps us learn something new and wonderful about our Savior. Abraham discovered new truths about the Lord on the mount where he offered his son (Gen. 22). The three Hebrew children discovered His nearness when they went through the fiery furnace (Dan. 3). Paul learned the sufficiency of His grace when he suffered with a thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12).

1 Peter 1:8–9 (ESV)  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, ⁹obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Peter is drawing an implicit contrast between himself and his readers. It was his great privilege to have known Jesus in the days of his flesh. His readers had not had that joy; but, although they never knew Jesus in the flesh, they love him; and although they do not see him with the bodily eye, they believe. And that belief brings to them a joy beyond speech and clad with glory, for even here and now it makes them certain of the ultimate welfare of their souls.

Four stages in man’s apprehension of Christ.

(i) The first is the stage of hope and desire, the stage of those who throughout the ages dreamed of the coming of the King. As Jesus himself said to his disciples, “Many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it” (Luke 10:23, 24). There were the days of longings and expectations which were never fully realized.

(ii) The second stage came to those who knew Christ in the flesh. That is what Peter is thinking about here. That is what he was thinking about when he said to Cornelius, “We are witnesses to all that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem” (Acts 10:39). There were those who walked with Jesus and on whose witness our knowledge of his life and the words depends.

(iii) There are those in every nation and time who see Jesus with the eye of faith. Jesus said to Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe” (John 20:29). This way of seeing Jesus is possible only because he is not someone who lived and died and exists now only as a figure in a book but someone who lived and died and is alive forevermore. It has been said that “no apostle ever remembered Jesus.” That is to say, Jesus is not only a memory; he is a person whom we can meet.

(iv) There is the beatific vision. It was John’s confidence that we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). “Now,” said Paul, “we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12). If the eye of faith endures, the day will come when it will be the eye of sight, and we shall see face to face and know even as we are known.

Conclusion. A man found a cocoon of the emperor moth and took it home to watch it emerge. One day a small opening appeared, and for several hours the moth struggled but couldn’t seem to force its body past a certain point.

Deciding something was wrong, the man took scissors and snipped the remaining bit of cocoon. The moth emerged easily, its body large and swollen, the wings small and shriveled.

He expected that in a few hours the wings would spread out in their natural beauty, but they did not. Instead of developing into a creature free to fly, the moth spent its life dragging around a swollen body and shriveled wings.

The constricting cocoon and the struggle necessary to pass through the tiny opening are God’s way of forcing fluid from the body into the wings. The “merciful” snip was, in reality, cruel. Sometimes the struggle is exactly what we need.

When life strikes it most severe blow into your life, what is it you most need (want) to hear?

It might be a difficult question answer, because we’re often not thinking clearly and our spirituality and emotions are in conflict, to some extend.

And yet when the Spirit of God inspired Peter to write to these suffering Christians, after his opening greeting, the first thing he does is to burst forth in praise: 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 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you…

The message of the resurrection will not erase your grief and your pain right now, but through Christ, you can experience grief differently.

As Scripture says, those who place their faith and hope in Christ do not “grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). The resurrection is God’s reminder that although our suffering is real, it is also temporary.

The resurrection is the only reason I have something to say when I look into the eyes of those who are experiencing the worst tragedies this life can offer.

The resurrection represents the historical fact that death has been conquered. For all of human history, death had a perfect record. It was unbeaten. From the strongest and most powerful to the weakest and most vulnerable, death got them all in the end. Until Jesus.

Christians have insisted from the very beginning that Jesus died and was truly resurrected from the dead. This wasn’t a fable. As Peter said, “we did not follow cleverly devised myths” (2 Peter 1:16). 

Paul underscored just how essential the resurrection was to the Christian faith, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). 

The resurrection is a fact in the past that offers hope for the future. It means death is not the end for us or our loved ones.

If we believe in Christ, we will one day receive the very same type of body he has–one that will not age or get sick or die again. We will receive a body fit for a New Creation.

This world will be wonderfully freed from its bondage to sin and renewed to the abundant life God intended. The resurrection affirms that this future hope is not a fantasy. It’s real.

Whatever our problems, we can praise God as Christians because He has saved us unto eternity.

But maybe you’re thinking, “Now, wait a minute! That’s really a superficial approach to my very complex problems. If you knew the things I’m facing, you wouldn’t be so glib as to say that I should praise God because someday I’ll have pie in the sky when I die. I need help right now!”

Maybe you’re saying, “I’m being treated unfairly at work.” Or, “I’ve been fired because of my Christian testimony.” Or, “I can’t find work and I’m facing severe financial problems.” Or, “I have a mate who’s not a Christian, who makes life miserable for me.” Or, “A good friend turned against me without cause and runs me down behind my back.”

Or, “Since I’ve begun to follow Christ, problems have multiplied to the point where I’m overwhelmed.” Or, “I’m facing death itself.”

I’ve just described those to whom Peter wrote this letter.

• Christian slaves were being treated unfairly by their masters, even though they had done no wrong (2:18-20).
• Christian wives were being mistreated by their unbelieving husbands (3:1-6).
• Many of the believers had lost former friends who now were slandering them (2:12; 3:16, 17; 4:4, 13-14, 16).
• Some were being threatened and it’s likely that some even were facing martyrdom (3:14; 4:12).

Peter knew all about these problems and yet he proclaimed to them, “Blessed be the God … who has caused us to be born again to a living hope ….”

We need to stop and think about what salvation means. Salvation means that we who justly deserve the eternal wrath of God have been delivered from that wrath through the death of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

If we are not saved, we’re lost, under the terrible condemnation of God. One of our problems today is that we’re trying to get people saved who have no concept of how terrible it is to be lost.

And we’re trying to coax people who have forgotten what it feels like to be eternally lost into enduring hardship in living the Christian life. They don’t appreciate what God has done in saving them.

———-

In recent years, our culture has taken a very unhealthy turn, embracing a perspective which predisposes our collapse under life’s adverse circumstances rather than causing us to persevere through them. The essence of this new perspective may be summed up in the word “victim.”

No longer are we responsible for our attitudes and actions when we have been wronged or abused—we are now “victims.” Whatever happened is no longer our fault nor are we responsible for the way we choose to respond.

Large segments of our society have built an entire party on the game of victimhood. The whole premise of this delicate system is that it is unsolvable. It must remain unsolvable because the power derived from victimhood will cease to exist if the problems are solved.

The Scriptures make it very clear that Christians will be the recipients of unjust treatment because of our faith in Jesus Christ and the godly lives we are to live in a sinful world.

While the Bible promises that we will experience innocent suffering for the cause of Christ, it nowhere speaks of our being “victims” in the contemporary sense of the word. Rather, the Bible forthrightly speaks of us as “victors.”

Peter introduces the subject of innocent suffering for Christ’s sake in 1:6: In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials…

But he will not mention the trials and testing of our faith until he has first set down the essential truths which should shape our perspective on suffering.

If God had left Jesus in the grave, our salvation would not be complete. In His death on the cross, Jesus bore our sins. But if He had not been raised bodily, He would not have conquered sin and death.

We find God’s mercy always at the center of any discussion of salvation. Only God’s mercy would allow him to have compassion for sinful and rebellious people.

Salvation is all completely from God; we can do nothing to earn it. Salvation is given to us because of God’s great mercy alone. Peter’s words offer joy and hope in times of trouble.

He finds confidence in what God has done for us in Christ Jesus, who has given us hope of eternal life. Our hope is not only for the future; it is “living.”

Eternal life begins when we trust Christ and are added to God’s family, when we were baptized in order to have our sins forgiven.. Regardless of our pain and trials, we know that this life is not all there is. Eventually we will live with Christ forever.

In the new birth, we become dead to sin and alive to God with a fresh beginning. People can do no more to accomplish their “new birth” than they could do to accomplish their own natural birth.

Believers are reborn into a living hope. The “hope” refers to our confident expectation of life to come. “Living” means that it grows and gains strength the more we learn about our Lord.

It is not dependent on outward circumstances; it is dynamic and vital. Hope looks forward in eager anticipation to what God will do. We have hope based on our conviction that God will keep his promises.

We base our hope in a future resurrection on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is living because Christ is alive. By rising from the dead, Christ made the necessary power available for our resurrection.

Christ’s resurrection makes us certain that we too will be raised from the dead. We shouldn’t be discouraged by earthly trials, for we have the Resurrection to be our backup.

Peter’s words indicate that he is writing more here than simple instruction to give comfort and assurance in times of suffering; he is also indicating the basis for praise toward God.

Christ’s resurrection is the assurance that we have a future, and that future is our hope. As Christians, this should be our desire and our expectation.

Christ’s death and resurrection accomplished an inheritance for which every saint waits. Christ’s resurrection from the dead assures us God was well-pleased with Christ’s atoning work.

Since His resurrection is the basis for, and assurance of, our own resurrection, we know we will enter into God’s eternal blessings.

All Old Testament saints died without entering into the promised blessings, but they were assured they would experience them after their death: All 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 (Hebrews 11:13).

All Old Testament saints, like Abraham, had a resurrection faith which enabled them to hope for blessings after death: He considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead; from which he also received him [Isaac] back as a type (Hebrews 11:19).

Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we have a future inheritance. This inheritance will be ours because Christ died. Because our hope of future blessings rests in the finished work of our Lord, it is a certain hope.

Peter gives a three-fold description of this hope: it is imperishable, it is undefiled, and it will not fade away.

William MacDonald says it is death-proof, sin-proof, and time-proof.

The Security of our Salvation (1:5)

… who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

God is our refuge and strength. He is our strong tower. His power protects us. Because He is all-powerful, nothing can cause us to lose that which God has provided, promised, and preserved.

Many of the benefits and blessings of our salvation are yet to be experienced in the future. It is important to note that Peter very clearly states we have not obtained all of the benefits and blessings accomplished through the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord.

Salvation is the vantage point from which we must view suffering.

How unfortunate that many Christians look at their salvation from their circumstances, rather than looking at their circumstances through their salvation.

When some saints suffer, they begin to doubt their salvation and the certainty of their future hope. Other Christians may even encourage such doubts.

Peter wants us to view our suffering from the standpoint of our security as saints, based upon God’s mercy, grace and power.

Peter teaches us that saints are not “victims” but “victors” in their suffering. The “victim” mindset has become a dominant note in our society. We look to our past, and to the abuse of others, or to the “genes” passed on to us from our parents as the cause of our sin and suffering.

Peter turns our eyes toward God and toward the shed blood of His Son, in whom we have not only forgiveness of sins, but victory in Christ.

We were not saved merely to cope with life; we were called to be conquerors in Christ. We are overcomers, especially in the trials and tribulations of life. Let us believe and behave accordingly.

This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.^{* 2} God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace. (NLT)

Introduction: Have you ever relied on the expression “I’m not from around here?” It’s something I’ve said quite often when someone stops me wanting information or directions when I am visiting another city, state, or country. They understand and are quite comfortable “moving on” to find someone who can help them.

Our subject is the pilgrim life (sojourners/exiles) – the fact that we are just passing through this life, journeying toward heaven. It refers to people who live outside of their homeland, whether by force or by preference.

Paul uses the same idea in Philippians 3:20: “But our citizenship is in heaven.”

The idea that Christians are citizens of heaven and live as foreigners on the earth is an important concept that Peter will build upon.

We are on this earth only for a short while and we should feel as settled in this world as we would feel if we were traveling in Mongolia. It may be a fascinating place to visit, but you aren’t planning to sink down roots there.

Being a pilgrim isn’t the dominant model of the Christian life for our times. Our view of Christianity is often geared to the here and now:

What will it do for my marriage? How will it help me raise my kids? Will it help me succeed in my career? Will it help me overcome personal problems?  Will it help me feel fulfilled as a person?

For some, heaven is thrown in as a nice benefit at the end of the ride. But heaven is not our focus.

We want to enjoy life now and cling to it as long as we’re able. We don’t view death as the gateway to everything we’ve been living for. We see it as something to be postponed and avoided at all costs.

There’s nothing wrong and everything right about enjoying God and the blessings He freely bestows on us in this life.

But if we don’t hold the things of this life loosely and aren’t focused on God Himself and on being in heaven with Him as our goal, we might be holding on to a “shallow form of Christianity.”

If we’re just living for the good life that being a Christian gives now, we won’t last very long under persecution. We wouldn’t endure much suffering.

Nor would we withstand the many temptations to indulge in fleshly desires.

After an extensive tour of the United States some years ago, the late, German theologian Helmut Thielicke was asked what he saw as the greatest defect among American Christians. He replied, “They have an inadequate view of suffering.”

I think his observation still holds true. If it were not so, how could American Christians even give a moment’s credence to the ridiculous idea that it is “always God’s will for believers to be healthy and wealthy? “ (the major theme of many believers today).

But an inadequate view of suffering is not just a problem for those who think that it’s always God’s will to give us a trouble-free life.

I find it to be a problem among many Christians undergoing trials. Some face debilitating illness, but instead of submitting to God, they grow bitter and complain, “Why me?”

Some put up with intolerable marriages for a while, but then bail out with the excuse, “Don’t I have a right to some happiness?”

Others look back on a childhood in which they were abused and angrily complain, “Where was God when I needed Him? What kind of God would allow an innocent child to suffer like I did?”

All these people share an inadequate view of suffering. Because of their bitterness toward God, they are not in submission to Him. They are vulnerable to temptation and sin.

Others who suffer may submit to God, but it’s more like glum resignation than grateful trust. They’re depressed because of their problems, perhaps even to the point of suicide. They’ve lost hope.

The apostle wrote this letter to Christians scattered throughout what today is northern Turkey. Three of them—Pontus, Cappadocia, and Asia—are listed in Acts 2:9 as the homelands of some of those who heard Peter preach on the day of Pentecost.

He wrote to encourage believers who would likely face trials and persecution under Emperor Nero. But the pressure was already on many who held to this new belief in Jesus as God in human flesh, who died on a Roman cross and was raised from the dead.

Peter points them to Christ, our great example, who endured unjust suffering from a hostile world, but who maintained both hope and holiness by submitting Himself to the Father’s sovereign purpose.

We all need this practical message because, in one form or another, we all face trials. Peter holds out no promise that following Jesus will exempt a believer from hardship. Far from it!

He says that we should not be surprised at fiery ordeals, as if they were abnormal (4:12). But he points us to Christ and to the glory promised us in heaven.

During most of the first century, Christians were not hunted down and killed throughout the Roman Empire. They could, however, expect social and economic persecution from three main sources: the Romans, the Jews, and their own families.

All Christians would very likely be misunderstood; some would be harassed; a few would be tortured and even put to death.

Two-thirds of believers around our world live under governments more repressive than the Roman Empire of the first century. Christians everywhere face misunderstanding, ridicule, and even harassment by unbelieving friends, employers, teachers, and family members.

In some countries, converting to Christianity is punishable by death. No one is exempt from catastrophe, pain, illness, and death—trials that, like persecution, make us lean heavily on God.

The first verses of the first chapter show the perspective we should have in trials. We are chosen, but we must live as resident aliens. We know that we belong to the triune God rather than to this world.

Throughout the Roman Empire believers had been attacked and were being savagely persecuted—so much so that they had been forced to flee for their lives.

They had been forced to leave everything behind: homes, property, estates, businesses, jobs, money, church, friends, and fellow believers.

Believers had apparently taken their families and what belongings they could carry and fled for their lives. Peter is writing to five Roman provinces where most of the believers had apparently tried to hide and find safety.

Imagine the fear, uncertainty, and insecurity; the wandering about and the searching for a safe place and for a way to earn a living.

In some cases, the believers did not even know where their next meal would come from. The church and its dear believers were fleeing for their lives.

All the feelings that attack human emotions when a person is being hunted down for brutal slaughter were attacking these believers: fear, concern, restlessness, sleeplessness, anxiety, stress, uncertainty, insecurity, and a pounding heart at the slightest shadow or noise.

How can a person be secure through suffering and persecution? There is one way and only one way: he must know that he is saved and be absolutely sure that he is under the care and love of God.

The first thing to know about our salvation is this: know that you are the chosen of God.

Vs. 1: They are people who are only pilgrims or foreigners scattered over the earth.

Vs. 2: They are people elected, chosen by God.

Vs. 2: They are people sanctified—set apart to God—and covered by the blood of Christ.

Vs. 2: They are people who obey God.

Vs. 2: They are people who experience grace and peace.

Christians live in a hostile world.

As foreigners, we do not belong to this evil world. In Jesus’ words: John 17:13–16 (ESV)  But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

We should not speak its language or follow its customs. Our behavior should be distinct from the residents of this world.

Have you ever traveled to a foreign country where you stood out obviously as a foreigner? In 2011, when we went to China, we spent an afternoon walking the back streets of Jingzhou, where we didn’t see any other Westerners.

People stared at us and we stared back. We found their customs interesting, but very different from our own. Instead of buying dead poultry and fish, shrink-wrapped in plastic, the Chinese women bought live chickens, ducks, spiders, eels, and fish.

The birds are squawking and the fish are gasping for their last breath as they carry them from the market. While their custom is no doubt more nutritious, I must confess that I was a foreigner, because I wouldn’t know what to do if my dinner was still alive when I brought it home!

As Christians our way of life, our conduct and behavior should stand out like a foreigner stands out in China.

We’re supposed to be different, as the King James translates 2:9, “a peculiar people.” (You’re probably thinking, “Yes, I’ve met many peculiar Christians!”)

But it doesn’t mean weird, but distinct. Christians should stand out as godly people in a corrupt, ungodly world.

Peter makes it clear, as Jesus did, that we are not to become hermits, cloistered from the world, but rather to live commendably in it:

1 Peter 2:12 (ESV) Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

1 Peter 2:15 (ESV) For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

1 Peter 4:19 (ESV) Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

Nor are we to live apart from the church, as individuals, but in community with other Christians as the people of God (1:22; 2:4-10; 3:8-9; 4:8-11, 17; 5:1-5, 9, 13-14).

As someone put it, “We are not to live in the world and go to church (worship), but to live in the church and go to the world.”

Sometimes people mock Christianity as a “pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die” religion. Clearly, it is! Paul says that if it’s not, “if we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19).

We live in a hostile world now, but we’re looking for that great day when our Savior returns from heaven for us!

Conclusion

Another key word in 1 Peter which relates to having both hope and holiness in this hostile world is the word “submit” (2:13, 18; 3:1, 5, 22).

It’s not a popular word in our day of “rights” and “assertiveness,” where everyone is trying to avoid pain and seek fulfillment at all costs. But it is a key to having a proper view of suffering.

When we face trials, we have a choice. We can assert ourselves and complain about how unfair things are and look for the easiest and quickest way out.

Or, we can submit to the sovereign hand of God, knowing that He has chosen us for salvation and saved us by His mighty power.

We can respond to trials like an egg or like a potato. An egg goes into boiling water soft, but comes out hard. A potato goes in hard and comes out soft.

I’d like you to ask yourself, “How am I responding to the trials God has sovereignly allowed into my life? Am I submitting to God or resisting Him?”

If we submit to Christ, He will soften our hearts and give us both hope and holiness as we live in this hostile world.

^* 1:1 Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia were Roman provinces in what is now Turkey.

   I want us to begin by thinking of the word “chaos”?  I want to draw a working definition of chaos from Genesis 1:2: “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
    Chaos: “a vacuum, a void, an emptiness … not filled and transformed by the voice or Word of God.”.
We often spend time talking about the culture in which we live and admitting that our culture is in a MESS. But this is only symptomatic of a much deeper problem: void/vacuum/ emptiness that exists at the center of America’s soul:
· A void marked by an absence or a poverty– of self-restraint, moral absolutes, compassion, civility.
· Void that cannot be filled, only exacerbated by drugs and alcohol, violence and immoral sex (real or vicarious), money, power or material goods.
Jim McGuiggan, in his book Caution: Men at Work”…but if the sign says “GOD at Work,” there is hope: for that’s what undid the chaos in beginning.”
DON’T won’t do; to merely adopt a “prophetic” tone by cursing the darkness encourages among us the spirit of self-righteousness or superiority.
Our goal is to allow Peter to issue a call to Christian excellence and holy accountability. The first action of God when it was time to create the universe? Deal with the chaos. That’s what God does!
· Where there is void, he wishes to fill it by His creative power. Where there is emptiness and loneliness and chaos, He goes to work to bring into being something orderly and meaningful and beautiful.
(Isa 45:18-19)  “For this is what the LORD says– he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited– he says: “I am the LORD, and there is no other. {19} I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right.”

Our God is a God of revelation…not of chaos, but truth … did not cloaked His being in nature, but has spoken to us, once through his prophets, now  “by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he created the universe.” (Heb 1:1-2)
   Jesus told a chilling parable about that: (Matt. 12:43-45) “”When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. {44} Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. {45} Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”” (some have called this the Parable of the Haunted House.).
What makes this especially chilling: He was talking about not about houses but people …empty people: empty of joy, empty of authority; empty of Lordship, empty of God.
If ‘nature abhors vacuum’… then Satan loves one….he loves to “repossess” empty hearts.

The problem with chaos?: something WILL fill an emptiness…rush in to fill the void: that’s why people some watch 40 hours TV/week … take drugs … hire prostitutes … shop till they drop … join cults — to fill the emptiness! (by no way am I listing items here in the order of harm done).
But any fullness but God’s…only deepens the hunger, only intensifies the emptiness, until the “final condition worse than first.”
   What has PETER to say to us about the CHAOS? 1 Peter is written to a church in the midst of culture at best indifferent, at worst hostile, to it.
Roman culture was willing tolerate Christians so long as they kept their religious notions to themselves … so long as they exhibited a broadminded spirit.
But this, church of Jesus Christ could not do that… so they were persecuted.. (1 Pet 2:9-10): “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. {10} Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
  Peter’s wonderful strategy is to address this head on, immediately, from the first sentence in his letter: “Dear scattered strangers … spiritual exiles.”
  Conventional wisdom today: always go “inclusive” … but Peter knows he must appeal to their set-apartness (holiness) if he is to keep “church from conforming to the Chaos of the secular world.”
‘Yes, as “strangers in this world” they were made to feel strange … as “resident aliens” they experienced alienation … “peculiar people” will be looked upon as peculiar.  Peter’s words are sympathetic and supportive, but blunt and foreboding:  ‘I know these are tough times for believers … and they could get tougher.”
So he speaks to them of “TRIALS”: (1 Pet 1:6-7) “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. {7} These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
(1 Pet 4:12-13) “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. {13} But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”
    What is the purpose of trials? To force or encourage us to get at the TRUTH.  Interesting: the kinds of “trials” Peter peaks of, which would serve to reveal truth and the genuineness of their faith, were largely VERBAL: several different words are used in the verses: insults, slander, malicious talk: verbal violence. (2; 12, 3:9, 3:16, 4:14)
“Persecution” in 1 Peter: initially it was not in the form of Polycarp in the arena … but verbal rejection: slings and arrows of outrageous co-workers, or neighbors, who (4:4) “think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation”
   Today it would be the person who is ridiculed because he won’t laugh at their sexist joke, who won’t stand quietly by and tolerate racist language, who won’t keep the gossip alive, who won’t trade insult for insult.
Peter’s challenge: Silence your critics, persecutors, peer-pressurers … with your LIVES.

(1 Pet 2:11-12) “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. {12} Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
   Show them how Christians love … care … serve … speak … “do good”  (Peter’s signature phrase in this epistle) …and if need be….die.
Four Items Which Bring About Chaos.
A. Absence of Biblical authority.  (1 Pet 1:13) “Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
  (1 Pet 3:15-16) “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, {16} keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”
    Chaos will always result when there is no authoritative source of truth. What fills that void? The WORD OF GOD, the revelation of God who has always spoken the truth, who always declared what is right.
Truth is not merely some abstract body of orthodox religious laws – truth is that which makes life work… grow… to be rich and full … in contrast, lies are what make our lives small, shrink and die.
Every society needs voices that keep asking the right questions of its values: Are they true? Not, fashionable, sophisticated, profitable, my right … but is it RIGHT?

1:13: “Prepare your minds for action.”

Gird up loins, roll up sleeves. We’re going to have to THINK!   3;15: “Be prepared to give an answer”

Some Bible paraphrases offer to define that answer (Phillips: “quiet and reverent answer”) That is, not mean-spirited, not argumentative, not condescending.
   B. Absence of moral identity. (1 Pet 1:15-16) “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; {16} for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.””
    Peter makes sure his church knows who they are:
· God’s elect/chosen (1:1-2) obedient children (1:14)
· blood-bought redeemed (1:18-19) – living stones in spiritual house  (2:5)    · holy priesthood (2:5) holy nation (2:9)
· people of God (2: 10) free servants of God (2: 16)
Morality grows out of, radiates from, identity.
C. Absence of the experience of transcendence. (1 Peter 1:8-9) “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, {9} for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

This isn’t a word I use very often, but you’ll come to understand why it is used now.

When Timothy Leary died a few years ago, he reminded us of the amazing decade of 60’s … psychedelic excursions into transcendental meditation and drug-induced mystical experiences.
What drove(s) that misguided quest, still drives much drug use today: HUNGER … for an experience of the transcendence (cheap substitute): something thrilling, be it faster roller coaster, stunningly-violent movie, or a hit of crack cocaine or the opioids.
What we have to offer is not some religious adrenalin experience (“getting high on Jesus”) .….but the possibility of a living relationship with a transcendent God, creator of the deepest joys the human heart can know.
I am not talking about some contrived emotionalism or cheap sentimentalism (where we turn down the lights and sing “Kum Ba Ya”) … but centering our worship upon Almighty God, singing hearty praises to our risen Lord.
D. Absence of a Sure Foundation. (1 Pet 2:4-6) “As you come to him, the living Stone–rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him– {5} you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. {6} For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.””
    Peter: They looked at the Master, rejected him (as Isa. 53 said) … perhaps because He was so ordinary, perhaps because He asked for so much.
But we often look at the alternatives! There is no other foundation. Nothing else fills the Void. For as his Father did at that first dawn, He has dealt with the “chaos” (of our sin), and thus we are re-created in Him.
Conclusions . Our Age looks into the Chaos and says: “Let me indulge your every desire … Let me substitute illusion for Truth … Let me distract you, thrill you, entertain you …surely this will fill your emptiness.     Our God looked into the Chaos and said: “Be strong, be faithful, be true.