SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you this morning if you didn't take the offer to receive a Bible to accept it now.
SPEAKER_00: Do uh have God's word open to you.
SPEAKER_00: It is better in paper form than on a screen because you see context rather than just a few lines, depending on your vision and how big the text needs to be on your screen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm hiding the label on my bottle because it says Sunderland AFC.
SPEAKER_00: We got stuffed 5-nil on Friday night.
SPEAKER_00: I'd sat down by 3-0.
SPEAKER_00: I decided I'd take Tom's dog for a walk.
SPEAKER_00: It was 4-0 before I got back, and 5-0 before the end of it.
SPEAKER_00: So uh yeah, I'm meeting humble pie today.
SPEAKER_00: We begin a 10-part series looking at the letter of 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: We'll pause for Pentecost and aim to conclude this series early in July.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just share with you the headlines, the titles of the 10 themes that we will work through as we look at 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: We begin today looking at a living hope.
SPEAKER_00: And then next week, living in holiness.
SPEAKER_00: And following that, living as people belonging to God.
SPEAKER_00: Then we're going to take a break looking, not a break, but looking at submission in three contexts: submission to authorities, submission to masters, and submission in marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Then we'll look at suffering for doing good and suffering for living for God.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering and glory in the world, and finally, suffering and glory in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Those will be the ten themes that will be the headlines as myself and other brothers in the church lead us through God's word in this series.
SPEAKER_00: This letter of one Peter was likely written in the early 60s AD, during the time of Emperor Nero, a period when pressure and persecution against Christians was growing.
SPEAKER_00: Peter writes around 30 years after Jesus' death and resurrection, and by this point, he is no longer the impulsive fisherman we met in the Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: He is now a seasoned leader in the church.
SPEAKER_00: This Peter is the one who declared in answer to Jesus' question in Matthew 16, verses 16 to 18, you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
SPEAKER_00: He is the same Peter who failed and denied Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We looked at that story at Easter.
SPEAKER_00: And he is the same Peter who Richard took us through the text of last week, who Jesus restored on the beach over a barbecue and a walk.
SPEAKER_00: And now we see him stepping fully into the role that Jesus had spoken over him to be the one on whom he will build his church.
SPEAKER_00: So as we begin now to look at the text, having set something of a context, we look first at the introduction, Peter's introduction in verses one and two.
SPEAKER_00: Peter introduces himself as an apostle, one sent with authority from God.
SPEAKER_00: He writes to believers scattered across regions we would now call modern-day Turkey.
SPEAKER_00: These are exiles, not just geographically displaced, but spiritually out of place in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And notice who they are, how Peter describes them, chosen by the foreknowledge of God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just take a moment there, chosen by the foreknowledge of God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: There is a thing in the Bible that talks of knowing somebody as being much more than an intellectual knowledge of them, or to know something about them, or to know something about something.
SPEAKER_00: To be known is to be loved.
SPEAKER_00: When you're chosen, it's not because it was all that was left, but because God observed, knew you by name and character and person and loved you and had a plan and a purpose for you.
SPEAKER_00: Sam Storms in his commentary on this says, you could think of foreknowledge as for loved.
SPEAKER_00: You're much more than just known, but loved, known and loved.
SPEAKER_00: So these exiles are chosen by the foreknowledge of God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: They are sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And they're made clean through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is a work of the Trinity, of Father, of Son, and of the Spirit, working together fully for the salvation of people.
SPEAKER_00: And know this, as it was two of them, so is it two of us.
SPEAKER_00: These believers didn't earn the knowledge, the love, the hope of salvation of God, but they were chosen and they were known and they were loved, even while they and we and I were still sinners.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter opens his letter with these words, grace and peace in abundance.
SPEAKER_00: That's striking.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's writing to people facing suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Yet he begins with grace and peace.
SPEAKER_00: Not because life is easy, but because God is present.
SPEAKER_00: And then as we move through the text, we look at verses three to five, and Peter moves straight into praise.
SPEAKER_00: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because of what God has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: He says we have been given a new birth into two things.
SPEAKER_00: One, a living hope.
SPEAKER_00: This hope comes through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is not wishful thinking.
SPEAKER_00: It's not vague optimism.
SPEAKER_00: It's rooted in a historical reality.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And because he lives, we have hope.
SPEAKER_00: Not just for now, but for what is to come.
SPEAKER_00: And then the second of those two things, if the first is a living hope, the second is an imperishable inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: An inheritance that will never perish, that will never spoil, and will never fade.
SPEAKER_00: You know as well as I do that everything in this world wears out, breaks down, or loses its shine.
SPEAKER_00: But not this, not this inheritance that is ours from God.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter says that this inheritance is kept in heaven for you.
SPEAKER_00: Not managed by governments, not affected by economies, and it's not at risk.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that good news in our current climate?
SPEAKER_00: God has his hand on our inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: And not only that, but we are shielded by God's power until the day that we receive it.
SPEAKER_00: So our inheritance is secure in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And we, though we face trouble in this world, are secure.
SPEAKER_00: And we can be confident that one day you and I, and our inheritance that is saved for us, will be united.
SPEAKER_00: Because God has his hand on us both.
SPEAKER_00: And then as we look at verses six and seven in the text, we see joy in the middle of trials.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter says something challenging.
SPEAKER_00: In this, you greatly rejoice, though now, for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
SPEAKER_00: A little while.
SPEAKER_00: What if suffering lasts years?
SPEAKER_00: What if it lasts a lifetime?
SPEAKER_00: That may be true for some of you here.
SPEAKER_00: It's certainly true for many of our brothers and sisters living in other places in the world, under oppressive governments, in regimes where they have no favor, no opportunity, and there is a risk to their life, their well-being every single day.
SPEAKER_00: A little while.
SPEAKER_00: From our perspective, a lifetime is not a little while.
SPEAKER_00: Even the time that you've struggled with something, perhaps, you would say feels like it's been a lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: And isn't simply a little while.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter is comparing this little while to the span of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And in that light, even this lifetime is simply a moment.
SPEAKER_00: He says, These trials have a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: They prove the genuineness of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Like gold refined in fire, faith is tested, purified, and strengthened.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus told a parable of seeds falling on different soils.
SPEAKER_00: Only the seed that fell on the good soil endured and produced fruit.
SPEAKER_00: These trials that come across us, if we don't endure, if we aren't faithful, then they grow up like weeds that choke us.
SPEAKER_00: Or they fall on a hard, heart, stony ground, they don't take root, and the sun scorches them, or the birds eat it away.
SPEAKER_00: Real faith, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, living faith in a living hope lasts.
SPEAKER_00: Chris and I, as we've traveled to Scotland this last week and back again, uh put on the book, The Hiding Place.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a book I've ever read, much to my shame.
SPEAKER_00: Uh just Chris is the reader in our house.
SPEAKER_00: I don't typically read a long drive and audible is a good way for Dave to consume books.
SPEAKER_00: And we were reading the story.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm reminded here of the story of Cory Ten Boom and her sister Betsy, and of the talk of the trials that they endured both before they were captured and then after they were taken prisoner, and ultimately when they were moved to Ravensbrook.
SPEAKER_00: They were imprisoned in a concentration camp there, and as they were ultimately moved into their barrack, they were put in a barrack room that was utterly flea infested.
SPEAKER_00: And Corrie complained bitterly, and Betsy was just faithful and said, We must give thanks to God in all circumstances and in all places, even here in a flea-ridden barrack room.
SPEAKER_00: And Corrie herself could see no reason for giving thanks to God for fleas.
SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't read the book, you probably can't either.
SPEAKER_00: Except they were later to discover, having overheard a conversation, one of the ladies in the room between the guards, that they had a freedom and a liberty in their room because of the fleas.
SPEAKER_00: The guards would come nowhere near them.
SPEAKER_00: Once they'd sent them through the door into their barrack, they shut the door behind them to keep the women in and the fleas in.
SPEAKER_00: They would have nothing to do with them.
SPEAKER_00: And it was there that Cory and Betsy were able to read the Bible that they had smuggled in.
SPEAKER_00: It's there that they were able to pray and to worship, to sing together, to share with one another hope and faith and share the good news of the gospel in the darkest of all places, in the midst of fleas, freely.
SPEAKER_00: The very thing that seemed unbearable to them was a means of ministry.
SPEAKER_00: So my question to you is where are the fleas in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to trust that God might still be at work even in them?
SPEAKER_00: And then as we move on through the text, we come to verses eight and nine.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says something remarkable.
SPEAKER_00: Though you have not seen him, you love him, and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.
SPEAKER_00: These believers had never seen Jesus in the flesh, as Peter himself had done.
SPEAKER_00: Yet they believed.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that belief in Jesus, they experienced real joy, a lasting joy, a joy that made a difference, a joy that saw them through the moments of the fleas.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a shallow happiness, but a deep and unshakable joy.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter points them to the outcome of their faith, the salvation of their souls.
SPEAKER_00: That was the finish line that they were heading for, the finish line that uh that Paul spoke of in his letter to 2 Timothy in chapter 4 and verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: It was the goal uh that Paul wrote of in uh in Philippians uh in chapter 3 and verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: And I was reminded this uh this morning as we met together and praying together, as I was something I thought I'd had this morning uh on what I was going to be sharing with you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I was drawn to remember Wes Newman, who would ordinarily be at the back with his wheelchair and with Amelia.
SPEAKER_00: He's not here this morning because he's in the London Marathon, racing his wheelchair, slightly modified.
SPEAKER_00: He has a go faster single wheel on the front, uh, but he is racing the London Marathon.
SPEAKER_00: Wes, and did I say it was 90,000 others, have a finish line set before them.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody wants to make it halfway round.
SPEAKER_00: They will go and get to the end.
SPEAKER_00: So Wes is raising money for access sport.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't made his target yet.
SPEAKER_00: I might share something on the church website if you'd like just to read a story and some you can maybe have an opportunity to do that.
SPEAKER_00: But I was thinking too that uh we multitask as believers.
SPEAKER_00: Can you believe that?
SPEAKER_00: Men in the room, you are multitasking even now.
SPEAKER_00: I know the lady's going, yeah, I've been doing that all of my life.
SPEAKER_00: Here, we do two things, and I was prompted because a thought had come to me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I was encouraged when Simon prayed it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Hebrews, let me read to you, Hebrews 12, these verses 1, 2, and 3.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the writer to Hebrews wrote, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
SPEAKER_00: For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: How are we multitasking?
SPEAKER_00: We who believe in Jesus are in that race.
SPEAKER_00: We have a finish line in front of us, but simultaneously we are amongst the great crowds, praising, blessing, encouraging, urging on our brothers and sisters, the youngest of them that meet on a Tuesday morning in Little Freshers, the tallest of them that are upstairs in Urban Saints, the oldest of you here gathered.
SPEAKER_00: We are both runners.
SPEAKER_00: That will come as a surprise to some of you, thinking I thought, my days were over, running, but you are also amongst that great cloud of witnesses, encouraging on.
SPEAKER_00: Peter reminds them this message isn't new.
SPEAKER_00: The prophets spoke about it long ago.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah, at the end of chapter 52 into 53, described the suffering servant.
SPEAKER_00: He had a vision of the events of the end of Jesus' life long before the Romans, long before crucifixion was even a thing.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah did not understand his vision, but he wrote it down.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel in chapter 7 and 8 spoke of what was to come.
SPEAKER_00: They saw glimpses of the future but didn't fully understand.
SPEAKER_00: What they were pointing to has now been revealed in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter says, This message, the good news, is for you.
SPEAKER_00: So that you can know your sins are forgiven, your future is secure, your hope is real.
SPEAKER_00: So I finish with this conclusion and some uh challenge for you.
SPEAKER_00: I asked the question, where does this leave us?
SPEAKER_00: So I have these few questions for you to reflect on.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know this living hope?
SPEAKER_00: Not know of in a human knowing, but know deeply, intimately.
SPEAKER_00: Are you known and know in return with a love and an intimacy the living hope that is ours?
SPEAKER_00: Not just an intellectual knowledge, but a personal, dear, held close knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Have you given your life to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Have you received forgiveness and new life?
SPEAKER_00: Are you confident in where you stand before God?
SPEAKER_00: And if you are, are you living with that joy?
SPEAKER_00: Are you holding on to that hope?
SPEAKER_00: Are you giving thanks even in the hard things?
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps even amongst the fleas.
SPEAKER_00: Because if it is true, and it is, then it changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: It means your suffering is not pointless, your future is secure, and your life has purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And it means you can walk through anything with grace and peace in abundance.
SPEAKER_00: Peter opens up for us a wonderful hope.
SPEAKER_00: And the invitation is there to you.
SPEAKER_00: Will you take it?
SPEAKER_00: Will you receive it?
SPEAKER_00: Don't leave this morning if you don't know that hope but want to receive it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't leave this morning if there are fleas in your life that you've never been able to give thanks and praise for.
SPEAKER_00: But you want to speak to somebody about them, to ask them to pray with you, to allow them, as Betsy taught Cory, to give thanks in all circumstances, to see that there is a hope and a purpose in it.
SPEAKER_00: May God bless you this morning and in this week to come.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.