1 Peter 1 3-9

Audience

Who were these people - the elect?

They were strangers in the world - believers originally from the areas surrounding Jerusalem, probably mainly from Judea and Samaria, who became believers in Christ, followers of "the Way," at or shortly after Pentecost. They were forced to flee due to the Roman persecution that was occurring. Most had probably been Jews, and they were steeped in the OT Scriptures, so they knew the legacy of the Israelites who were supposed to have been "set apart" in the land. These were the first generation of Christians who had to deal with the issues of living within other cultures, but being "strangers" or "aliens" themselves.

Due to the trials, they appear to have been both discouraged and confused. In the first nine verses, Peter gives them both encouragement and answers to basic questions they would have had about who they are in Christ.
What characterizes these people:
- great joy (rejoicing) in the fact that they have a secure salvation (held secure by God's power through faith) (1:6)
- grieving in the face of various trials (serves to authenticate their faith); undergoing suffering (1:6; 3:14,16,17; 4:1,12,14,16; 5:9,10)
- resident aliens (1:1,17; 2:11)
- ridiculed for not joining in sinful activities (4:4)
- some were slaves, undergoing beatings and unjust suffering (2:18-19)
- obedient to the truth (1:22)
- they need to "grow up in their salvation" (2:2)
What has God done with respect to his elect?
- He has given them new birth
How do the elect respond to what God has done?
- They rejoice with exceeding joy
What do the elect have to keep them motivated and on the right path in the face of a difficult road ahead?

Purpose for the Letter

To encourage, exhort, and to "declare the true grace of God" (5:12), reminding his audience of who they are and what they have in Christ, so that they can stand firm in this "true grace of God" in the face of the suffering that they are experiencing.

A Living Hope

us: born again to a living hope, namely to an inheritance
- => our salvation starts with a rebirth
- => our salvation culminates in a perfect inheritance that will be ours
you: guarded through faith for a salvation (revealed in the last time)
=> our salvation is secure
you: rejoice, although in this life you will face trials
- => our salvation should result in a state of being overjoyed; trials contribute to this
- => trials serve to authenticate a genuine faith
- => an attribute of a genuine faith is love for Christ
- => an attribute of a genuine faith is belief in Christ
- => an attribute of a genuine faith is an inexpressible and glorious joy

Questions Leading to Subject / Complement

What do the elect exiles have to hope in?
- A living hope, an inheritance, a salvation.
What made this new birth possible?
- The new birth was enabled through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
What is it that gives security in this salvation?
- The security for this salvation comes through faith by God's power.
When will this salvation ultimately be achieved or culminated?
- The salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time.
What is the purpose of the trials each person is facing?
- to authenticate their faith (extremely valuable), resulting in praise, glory, and honor to God.
How can each person know that they are among the elect?
- True, saving faith manifests itself in the fruits of: love for Christ, belief in Christ, and exceeding joy.

Exegetical Outline

Subj: What hope do the elect have to keep them going in the face of significant trials?
Comp: The basis for the elect's hope is their salvation which has already happened, which will happen, and which is happening.

The thing that the elect need to keep their eyes focused on is a living hope, an inheritance, and a secure salvation ready to be revealed to them in the last time. (3-5)
1. The elect need to know that their orientation has changed from that which is dead to that which is "a living hope." (3)
2. The elect need to know that this living hope (is, results in) a secure inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. (4)
3. The elect need to know that their salvation is secure. (5)
  1. Salvation is secured by God's power.
  2. Salvation is secured through faith, which acts as a shield (see Eph 6:16).
The thing the elect need to understand about the process of salvation is the purpose of trials, the important role of faith, and the certainty they can have in their salvation. (6-9)
1. The elect need to know that trials serve the purpose of authenticating faith. (6-7a)
2. The elect need to know that faith is extremely valuable (more precious than gold) (7b)
3. The elect need to know that authenticated faith results in praise, glory, and honor to God (7c)
4. The elect need to know that true, saving faith manifests itself in the fruits of: love for Christ, belief in Christ, and exceeding joy. (8)
5. The elect need to know that this overflowing joy comes as a result of receiving the goal of their faith, the salvation of their souls. (9)

Passage Paraphrase

We gain hope and joy (which should serve to encourage us and spur us onward) from what we have already experienced (rebirth), which points to what we will experience (living hope => inheritance => final salvation). Know that your salvation is held secure (by God's power, through faith).

But that's not all that we have to encourage us and spur us onward. Faith forms a link between what we know that we have and will have and the daily life that we now live. I realize you are grieved by the daily trials and suffering that you experience, but know that these trials have tremendous value. They serve to prove your faith genuine (and genuine faith is more precious than gold), and this genuine faith will result in praise, glory, and honor to Christ when he returns. You can know that you have this genuine faith because your life displays a love for Christ and an ongoing belief in Him. This leads to rejoicing with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for your are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Theological Outline

Proposition: The basis for encouragement and hope in this life is to be found in the facts of our salvation.
Expanded: You will find encouragement and hope in your knowledge of both the salvation that you have received and that you will receive, and also in the salvation that you are receiving.

We can rejoice in the knowledge of the salvation that we have received and that we will receive. (3-6a)
1. Past: We need to know that we have been "born again" through Christ's resurrection from the dead. (3)
2. Future: We need to know that our rebirth is to a "living hope," which is the secure inheritance of our final salvation. (4)
  1. We need to know that this salvation is secure. (5)
    1. Salvation is secured by God's power.
    2. Salvation is secured through our faith, which acts as a shield (see Eph 6:16).
3. The past and future knowledge of what we have in Christ should lead to rejoicing. (6a)
We can also rejoice in the salvation that we are receiving. (6b-9)
1. Trials serve an extremely important function in our salvation. (6b-7)
  1. Trials serve the purpose of proving our faith to be genuine. (6b-7a)
  2. Genuine faith will result in praise, glory, and honor to God. (7c)
2. We can know that our faith is genuine by the fruits displayed in our lives. (8)
  1. Love for Christ (love for neighbor) is only found in those with genuine faith. (8a)
  2. Ongoing belief (obedience) in Christ is only found in those with genuine faith. (8b)
3. Our present experience, which is obtaining the goal of our faith, which is our salvation, should lead to rejoicing. (8c-9)

Purpose of Sermon

To demonstrate that we, as those who have been born again, should rejoice as we look in faith toward our true heavenly home, and that daily trials in this life serve to increase the confidence and hope we have in our home which is to come.

Rejoice (in faith), for we are coming home!

OR

Hope and joy for living come through a mind set on a salvation that was, is, and is to come.

OR

A salvation mindset leads to hope and joy for living life today!

Look with confident hope and live daily by faith.

Living by faith, with eyes focused on your eternal home, making every moment count today, results in joy today and the assurance of salvation tomorrow.

Through faith, live today in view of tomorrow's eternal home while making every moment count.

Set your eyes on a "living hope"
1. Past: You have been born again (3)
2. Future: Your hope is in an inheritance that is alive, enduring, and secure (4)
3. Future: You are held secure, by God's power through faith (5)
4. Present: Joy results from focusing on the living hope (6a)
Know that daily trials have eternal significance
1. Trials prove your faith genuine (6b-7a)
2. Genuine faith has tremendous value
  1. It glorifies God (7b)
  2. It produces fruit - love for Christ and joy (8)
  3. It has salvation as its goal (9)

OR

The basis

Homiletical Outline

INTRODUCTION

Illustration: As our family can attest to, it is a wonderful thing to have the security and internal coherence of a place to truly call home.
1. You know our family has been here at Grace, and here in Allen, for right at two years. In that time, we've come to truly have a home here. We've established roots, made friends, slowly gotten to know neighbors and started to become integrated into their lives, we've been welcomed and loved here at Grace, we feel a sense of security here - all the things that make you call a place "home." This was especially in the forefront of our minds over the past few weeks as we travelled back to San Diego for the first time since we left there two years ago. San Diego was a place that we called home for 19 years, and it was with a great deal of anticipation that we travelled back to see friends, I met with the guys from my prior job, we spent time at the church that had meant so much to us during our time there, we spent time at the beach, and yes - the weather there was what it always is - right around a balmy 70 degrees. Just for fun, we pulled up the temperatures here on a daily basis and watched them steadily go up.
  So it was a great trip, and I think we all enjoyed it immensely, but there was something that was a bit strange about it. A number of times I looked around at the people and places that were so familiar to me, and yet this was not home. We met with a bunch of our previous neighbors, but after a while, they went back into their houses and we left. We saw our old house, but it has someone else's car in the driveway. When I met for lunch with the team of folks that I used to work with, they went back for meetings after lunch, but I didn't. It was a strange feeling, after having been there so long. Things looked so familiar, but it wasn't home.
Need: As believers, we too are unable to be at home in this world, yet we have a deep need inside, a deep longing, to be home. For us it's not a physical thing, but one of basic values. Our true citizenship is in heaven, and sometimes we need to be reminded of that.
1. Sometimes in the trials that we go through as we pursue God's will in our lives, we lose track of who we are in Christ and the assurances that we've been given. Sometimes we can become confused and discouraged. Sometimes we need to be reminded of all that our salvation consists of - it is something that we possess today, it is something that we will possess when we are done with this life, and it is something that we are possessing as we go through the daily trials of life.
Introduction to the text: Peter's audience were elect exiles and "strangers in the world."
1. They were different from the people around them because their faith made them different. - different religion, different way of seeing and understanding life, different in the things they did and didn't do.
2. They were going through trials and suffering - read text (1:6; 3:14,16,17; 4:1,12,14,16; 5:9,10).
3. They were strangers and "resident aliens" in the place where they lived, not because of their political affiliation or citizenship in a country, but because they chose to be, but because God's election of them
4. Peter's point in the first section of his letter to these "resident aliens," was that, even through they were strangers and aliens in the world, God had provided them with everything they needed to persevere to the end, and arrive at their true home.
5. This characteristic of strangers and aliens in the world is something that every believer likewise shares with the recipients of Peter's letter. How are we to reconcile statements like, "the last will be first, and the first will be last" (Matt 20:16) or "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matt 5:44) or whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it." If we truly adopt and live by God's principles, and if we seek after obedience to him, then we will be "strangers and aliens in this world."
Homiletical Proposition: Through faith, live life in view of tomorrow's eternal home while making every moment count today.
Outline Preview: We're going to take a look at two primary points that Peter makes as he gives his readers a basis for hope and encouragement.
1. He first reminds them of what they have already been given with respect to salvation, and of what they will have.
2. Secondly, he encourages them by describing to them the tremendous value of the trials and suffering that they are currently experiencing. He tells them that in their daily lives, they are not just marking time, suffering through, trying to survive until they see Christ at his return. They are accomplishing something of great significance every day in the things they are now experiencing and in the way they respond to them.
3. The thread that Peter uses to connect these two points together is faith, and he is not simply speaking of the faith that they had at the point of their conversion, but of the experience of faith that they now have that provides certain blessings and benefits in their daily walk. While we often see faith as being of primary importance in justification; Peter gives it central importance in the daily living of the Christian life.
4. Finally, Peter's goal in all of this is to communicate the reality of hope and encouragement to "the elect," a people who are without an earthly home today. Peter's message to them is that they have waiting for them, and they are gaining for themselves a true home, and there is joy that is to be had today as they pursue it.

BODY

I. In Peter's first point, he reminds them of what they need to known and understand about their salvation. He says, in effect, here is what you need to know and fix your eyes upon. (READ 3-6a).

(3) First, Peter says to the elect that they have already received (past tense) a new birth (explain). You have been born again - your citizenship has changed.
1. Throughout his letter, Peter emphasizes the "already" and the "not yet." There are certain things that we, as God's children, already have today. One of those is a new birth - a regeneration in which we are identified with Christ rather than with Satan.
2. This is the starting point of salvation. Prior to this, there is no ability to spiritually discern at all. When Jesus is speaking on this to Nicodemus in John 3:3, he says "Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Paul often speaks of the eyes as being "darkened" and that one is "dead to the things of God." Often, we get stuck here and assume this is salvation. (For Peter, salvation is that which we have received, it is that which we are receiving (covered later), and it is that which we will receive.)
3. The initiative is on God. He gives us new birth.
4. Through this one phrase, the "new birth," Peter explains to (or really he reminds) his audience why they are living as aliens and strangers in the world. They have been "born again," which means and change of loyalties and the beginning of a new citizenship. We who were previously citizens of the world, and partakers of its values and its goals, have changed citizenship. Speaking of the period prior to the new birth, Paul says in Eph 2:12, "remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." Prior to a new birth, there was a total separation from Christ. Strangers to the covenants of promise means that everything that had been promised to the believer through the covenant made with Abraham, was not theirs prior to the new birth. In essence, they had nothing to look forward to - Paul even says that prior to rebirth, they had "no hope" and they were "without God in the world." In the same passage (Eph 2), skip down to verse 19. Speaking of the believer's state after the new birth, Paul says "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God." It's striking that Paul uses the exact same language here as Peter does to describe believers, but in an opposite sense. After the new birth, Paul says "you are no longer strangers and aliens," but Peter says to his audience of believers, that they are strangers and aliens. Why the discrepancy? Paul is saying to the Ephesians that they "are no longer strangers and aliens to the household of God." Peter is saying to his audience of believers, they have become "strangers and aliens to the world." The message from both is that new birth results in a change of citizenship - from citizenship with the world to citizenship with God's family.
(3-4) Secondly, this new birth is into something that is future - our "new birth" is into a "living hope" and an "inheritance" and "a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." You have gone from being without hope to having a living hope.
1. Prior to their "new birth," Peter's readers were "without hope and without God in the world" as we read in Eph 2. Now, they not only have a new citizenship, but they also move from a state of hopelessness to a state in which they possess a "living hope."
2. living hope (3) and inheritance (4) and ultimate fulfillment of salvation (5) are to be equated - they are all referring to the same thing. Peter's emphasis for his audience is on the word hope. Nowhere else in the NT is the hope that is awaiting us after our lives on earth referred to as “a living hope.” Peter includes uses this term to convey something significant to his audience, the elect. Simply by using the term, he is establishing a contrast with a hope which is not “living.” In that day, just as is true today, people found all sorts of things to place their hope in. If you take a look at the news headlines from the past week, you would get a good idea of where people place their hope today. Peter says that you can choose those things which are temporary, and, in actuality, vain, empty, and dead. But those who have been born anew, have a hope that is solid, and genuine, and vital and living. It is a hope that culminates in eternal life. In contrast, without a rebirth, an energizing by the Spirit of God, everything culminates in death - in eternal separation from God.
3. Peter gives the basis for the "living hope" as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This living hope is not just something baseless that God comes up with out of the blue for us. It has a solid basis, and that basis is all part of God's eternal plan to redeem a people for himself. Peter, like Paul and the other NT authors, constantly points to the gospel as the foundation for every blessing that we have been given or will be given. (Other passages on "the hope" - Col 1:3-5)
4. Q: What is this inheritance that the elect are to receive. (4) (will miss full meaning unless we consider the first picture of this inheritance from the OT) Scripture illustration: It was through Abraham, the father of all who believe (Rom 4:11), that the first promise of an inheritance comes. READ Heb 11:8-10. (faith aspect considered in a moment; for now just look at inheritance)
  1. Contrast inheritance (H11:8) with "not knowing where he was going" (H11:8), "foreign land" & "living in tents" (H11:9). We see this with Abraham. After his wife Sarah died, Abraham wanted to find a place to bury her, but he had a problem. He didn't have a place to call home. In Gen 23:3-4 we read: "And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, 'I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.'"
  2. Explain inheritance - it is a physical place. For Abraham and his descendants, it had a physical location on earth, a land. They also always held it to also represent a spiritual reality. We read in Heb 11:10, it is "the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God." (H11:10) Just after this, we read in vv. 14-16 (speaking of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob), "for people who speak thus....that is, a heavenly one."
  3. Abraham, along with Isaac and Jacob (H11:9), and all the elect, which includes you and me as believers in the church today - we are all sojourners without a true home in the here and now, but we are looking toward our true home, "a city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God" (H11:10), and from 1 Pet, one that will never perish, spoil, or fade (4).
  4. The inheritance is also a reference to eternal life. In answer to a question that Peter asks Jesus about what they, the disciples, would receive, Jesus answers that, "everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life." (Matt 19:29)
  5. Q: What is the nature of the inheritance? In Peter's answer, he emphasizes it's perfection and certainty. It is:
    1. a living hope grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ
    2. it can never spoil, fade, or perish - everything else around us is constantly spoiling, fading and perishing. (illustration about material things spoiling, fading, & perishing - including our earthly bodies? Perhaps this can best be seen in the workout and cosmetic enhancing industries. We do everything to keep things from spoiling, fading, or perishing, but to no avail.). In contrast, Peter says to focus on that which does not diminish over time. It is eternal. In speaking of the Kingdom of God, Jesus told his disciples in Luke 12:32-33, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
    3. it is "kept in heaven for us."
  6. Other passages on "the inheritance" - Col 3:23-24.
(5) Third point that Peter makes is that the believer is held secure for this inheritance. Q: How can I know for certain that I will have this inheritance? How is the inheritance guaranteed?
1. Life illustration: Peter wants the picture of a final resting place, a true home, an inheritance, to serve as a motivation to his audience in the midst of their daily trials, so the underlying question that he deals with here, is "how could this serve as a motivation if they weren't absolutely certain that it would be a reality?"
2. Peter says they can be certain they will have this inheritance because it is by God's power that we are being guarded for salvation. In Eph 1:13-14 - "In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory." It is God's power, in the form of the Holy Spirit at work within us, that guards our salvation. That makes us truly secure, as God cannot lose one person who is truly His - God's power cannot fail. BUT, Peter doesn't leave it here. He does not say, "You are guarded by God's power for your salvation, so the way you live your life today doesn't really matter." Instead, he brings us into the picture. He says that the security of the believer is by God's power, through faith.
3. Peter says that it is our faith that serves to shield or to guard us, by God's power, until we receive the inheritance of our salvation. In essence, he is saying that it is our faith that serves to identify us as those who are God's children, as rightful heirs to "the inheritance."
4. Eph 6:16 - "In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one."
5. Scripture illustration (cont.): Using the same illustration of Abraham, explore the meaning of "through faith."
(6a) Finally, Peter says, "In this you greatly rejoice." He simply gives this as a result of eyes that are focused on the right hope - on a living hope, a secure inheritance. Certainly, we know from the context that Peter was not referring to a temporary sort of happiness that might result from agreeable circumstances, since his audience was facing unjust persecution and suffering of all kinds. He is speaking of the deep abiding joy that Jesus spoke of in the sermon on the mount, when he said, "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." In Romans 5:2, Paul says, "Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." While setting our eyes on the temporary pleasures of this world can result in a measure of happiness, this happiness is dependent on the circumstances around us which will eventually fail us. We can trust and take true joy in the secure inheritance that we have in Christ.

(Transition: Now, having dealt with the question of what we already have in Christ, which is new life and the ability to see rightly so that we can set our eyes upon the "living hope" that is awaiting us, Peter now moves to the present. This is the second major point that Peter makes in this passage. The "elect," the believers in the churches that Peter addresses are in the midst of daily trials and tribulations - many of which are coming as a result of persecution for their faith.)

II. Here Peter reminds them that the very trials that they are going through each day have great eternal significance. (READ 6b-9)

First, Peter states that the trials have come so that their faith may be proved genuine.
1. Illustration contrasting views on trials: Discuss how we normally view trials. They are painful to endure, we see pain and suffering as a bad thing, and we seek to remove ourselves and those we love from all trials. Instead, Peter points to the tremendous value of trials because of how they affect faith. They come "that your faith may be proved genuine, and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."
2. So of what benefit would it be for our "faith to be proved genuine?" Is God somehow uncertain as to how genuine our faith is until he sees it proven by trials? That can't be the case because God knows the heart. He made us, he sustains us, and he knows about every hair on our heads. No, Peter reminds his readers that the daily suffering that they are going through proves their faith genuine for their benefit, because it is only genuine faith that is of any true value. Notice here that Peter is clearly not talking about the faith that they had at the beginning, the faith that justifies. But, he is speaking of sanctification - of the day in, day out faith through which Peter's readers, and we today, act in obedience to God.
3. And he almost can't contain himself here, as he throws in this parenthetical statement in verse 7 to point out the tremendous value of genuine faith. He says, "so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even through refined by fire - may be proved genuine..." He encourages these believers, who are undergoing severe persecution, by telling them that their daily faith is of incredible value because it is of eternal value. Gold is temporal. No matter how valuable it is today or it was back then, it has no real lasting value.
Next, from the end of verse 7 to the end of this passage in verse 9, Peter explains the value of genuine faith.
1. First, genuine faith glorifies God.
2. Secondly, genuine faith produces fruit. READ v. 8. "Though you do not see him," and "even through you do not see him now" - this is referring to faith. From Heb 11:1, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."
  1. Here, Peter encourages his readers by answering the question that they have in their minds, Q: How can I know that my faith is genuine?" He tells them that there is one way - by looking at the fruit produced in their lives. Jonathan Edwards uses this verse as the basis for his book on what he calls "Religious Affections." The goal of his book is to contrast and distinguish between genuine faith and counterfeit faith, and he points to the fruit produced by a genuine faith as being the visible, external indicator that one's faith is genuine. Of the people that Peter was writing to, Edwards says, "although there was nothing that the world saw, or that the Christians themselves ever saw with their bodily eyes, that thus influenced and supported them, yet they had a supernatural principle of love to something unseen; they loved Jesus Christ, for they saw him spiritually, whom the world saw not, and whom they themselves had never seen with bodily eyes." In essence, Peter says to his readers, "Yes, you are different - you are strangers and aliens in this world, yet it is that very difference that affirms that you belong to Christ, and that gives you greater confidence to live faithfully through the trials of today as you fix your eyes on tomorrow."
  2. Third, genuine faith results in Joy. How different from the world is this, and how noticeable, that we are able to experience, in the midst of suffering, an "inexpressible and glorious joy." The nature of this joy is that words are inadequate to describe it, and it is of the nature of God - it is glorious, so clearly it is not the type of joy that we summon up within ourselves. It is one of the gifts of God, which come as a result of our acting in obedience of faith.
3. Finally, genuine faith has salvation as its goal.

Bulletin Outline

Sermon text: 1 Peter 1:3-9

Through faith, live in view of tomorrow's eternal home while making every moment count today.

I. Set your eyes on a "living hope"

Already saved: you have been born __again__ (3)
Will be saved: your_ ___hope__ is in an __inheritance__ that is enduring and secure (4)
Means of assurance: by God's power, through _faith__ (5)
Result today: rejoicing! (6a)

II. Live daily knowing trials have eternal significance

Trials prove your faith genuine (6b-7a)
Genuine faith has tremendous value
1. It glorifies God (7b)
2. It produces fruit - love for Christ and joy (8)
3. It has salvation as its goal (9)

Three Questions:

1. Explain: What does it mean?

2. Validate: How do I know it's true?

3. Apply: What difference does it make?

Peter's vision of God: Every good thing for us is due to our Triune God and it finds its ultimate result in praise and glory to God. God is to be praised because of our salvation (v. 3), it is through his great mercy that we have our salvation (v.3), it is through God's power that our salvation is secured, genuine faith results in praise, glory, and honor to God.

Complement Breakdown

salvation:
- => It has already happened
  - it comes through God's great mercy
  - started with a "new birth"
  - it is grounded in Christ's resurrection
- => It will happen
  - we have a "living hope"
  - it culminates in an inheritance, imperishable, undefiled, and unfading
- => it is happening (from point of rebirth until it is revealed in the "last time")
  - it is being securely "kept in heaven" for us
  - faith, enabled by God's power, forms a shield of protection around us (Eph 6:16 - the "shield of faith). Duration: "until the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time."
    - while we are waiting, our trials serve the purpose of authenticating our faith
    - faith is extremely valuable (more precious than gold)
    - authenticated faith results in praise, glory, and honor to God
  - true, saving faith manifests itself in the fruits of: love for Christ, belief in Christ, and exceeding joy
  - it is the outcome (or goal) of our faith

Points of Application

We need to acknowledge that we are "strangers and exiles on this earth" (Heb 11:13).
1. This is an assumed starting point in Peter's message to his audience, in that he assumes that they know they are not at home in this world; yet throughout his letter he encourages them to live in this way - to let their actions in daily life betray the fact that they are not at home.
2. In our lives today, we often seek after the greatest levels of comfort and security. This shows up in the choices that we make, in the prayers that we pray, and in our many attempts to "make ourselves at home." We need to ask ourselves whether this is the way that one who is an exile and a stranger in this world would really be living? There are certain real life things that shake our foundation here on earth. Whether it is a loss of a job, a broken relationship, a "natural disaster" that damages or destroys our home, a life-threatening illness, or the loss of someone close to us - all these things, and more, can break down our sense of security.
3. Illustration: A few years back, I had a friend who was in a position of spiritual leadership within a church, tell me about a couple that he knew well who, in the later years of their working life, had opted to become missionaries in Mexico and they had sold their house and given up retirement accounts in order to help finance their missionary outreach. I'll never forget how he spoke of this as being irresponsible and lacking common sense. I seriously wonder if instead, this might be better explained as an acknowledgment on their part that they are strangers and exiles in this world, and that rather than seeking to make themselves at home here, they were fixing their eyes on a "city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God."
Understand where you place your ultimate hope.

Larger Structure

Remainder of chap. 1: Therefore…

Place your hope (future)
Do not conform (negative), but be holy in all conduct (positive) - because you trust what is written.
Live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.

Keywords

new birth
living hope
inheritance
faith
salvation