Great Mercy and Living Hope - 1 Peter 1:3-9

In this episode of "The Long Obedience," Pastor Santosh Ninan unpacks 1 Peter 1:3-9, exploring the foundational themes of great mercy, new birth, and a living hope. He candidly shares from his own recent season of suffering to illustrate how God uses trials to refine our faith. Pastor Santosh encourages you to hold suffering and rejoice together, finding that true Christian joy is rooted not in the absence of pain, but in the presence of Jesus Christ and an unshakable inheritance. 

Transcript

Speaker 0:02

Hello, friends. Welcome to the Long Obedience Podcast with me, Santosh Ninan. We have been off to a great start. We've had 100 downloads in the first week, which puts us in the top 25% of all podcasts, which is just fantastic. And it's been so good to hear from many of you of how you're enjoying the podcast and how you're even using the podcasts for personal study and for Bible studies. That's very, very encouraging. I'd remind you to subscribe, review, and share the podcast. That's just how it works in the podcast world. So we're going to continue on today in our study of 1 Peter. And today we're going to be looking at verses 3 to 9, chapter 1, verses 3 to 9. So if you ever Bibles, why don't you turn to 1 Peter chapter 1, starting in verse 3? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being guarded by God's power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials, so that the proven character of your faith, more valuable than gold, which, though perishable, is refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. So Peter opens this letter with a familiar pattern for ancient letters, who he is, who he's writing to, and then this greeting, uh, which is blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then what unfolds in the rest of the passage can be summed up like this mercy, hope, inheritance, trials, and worship. So let's start with mercy. Peter begins, according to his great mercy. Everything starts here. Not our effort, not our strength, not our spiritual performance. God's mercy. And that means mercy is not abstract, it's personal, it's connected to God. It means God moving towards people who don't deserve it and can't earn it. We must always begin with mercy before we talk about morality. Peter is saying everything about to describe rests on this foundation of mercy. And I want to rest here a little bit on this idea of mercy because this is something God has really been impressing on me over the past few weeks. It started back before Palm Sunday. I was writing a sermon that I preached in my church on Palm Sunday. And as I was preparing for it, I was looking at some of the events that happened before Palm Sunday. And in Mark chapter 10, we see two episodes happen. First of all, you have uh two disciples coming to Jesus and saying, We want you to do whatever we ask of you. And Jesus says, What do you want me to do for you? And they say, We want to be on your right hand, on our left hand when you come in glory. So they're asking for these positions of power and status. All right. So just think of that. The next encounter Jesus has is with a blind man. And this blind man yells out to Jesus. He simply says, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. So contrast those two things: one asking for glory, status, honor, and power, and one simply calling out for mercy. And I've really been meditating on that. And every day I see myself in Bartimaeus, the blind man. I see myself on the side of the road crying out for mercy, asking Jesus to touch me. And then I want to do what Bartimaeus does. He Jesus touches him, Jesus heals him, and then the text says he got up and followed him. You see, we're forever in this posture of crying out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Then we receive his touch and then we follow him. And out of the mercy comes new birth. It says, Out of Christ's great mercy, we have been given a new birth. Christians are people who have been born again. Now, this description is traced back to an encounter that Jesus has with a man named Nicodemus. This is found in John chapter 3, starting in verse uh one. It says, There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to him at night and said, Rabbi, we know you're a teacher who's come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him. Jesus replied, Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So here you have Nicodemus, this Pharisee, this religious leader, coming to Jesus. First of all, he says, gives him a compliment. You're a teacher that has come from God. Jesus, you are divine. God is with you. And then Jesus gives this kind of cryptic answer. He says, Truly, I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So he's saying to Nicodemus, look, Nicodemus, you've seen the signs towards the kingdom, you've seen the miracles I've done, but those are only signs. It's only a spiritual rebirth that will allow you to see what the signs are pointing to, which is the kingdom of God. I love this passage because Nicodemus is asking a question that anyone living in the West in 2026 would also ask of Jesus. And it's this: it's in verse 4. How can anyone be born when he's old? Can he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born? You see, Nicodemus is actually betraying a materialistic scientific worldview, despite living in a pre-scientific age. He's saying, Jesus, what you're saying is physically and biologically impossible. And it's almost comical, this imagery of a grown person being reborn out of their mother's womb. So Jesus helps him out. He says, Truly, I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the spirit, he can't enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh. Whatever is born of the spirit is spirit. Don't be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. You see, what Jesus is doing is he's raising the conversation out of the material, out of the physical, into the spiritual. I love being a Canadian, I love Canada, but one disadvantage of growing up in a country like Canada is that virtually everyone here has been raised in a materialistic physical worldview. As a result, we have a perpetual resistance to metaphysical or supernatural beliefs and realities. We are all deserving of the rebuke that Jesus delivers to Peter in Matthew chapter 16, verse 23. He says to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me because you are not thinking about God's concerns, but human concerns. You are a hindrance to me because you're not thinking about God's concerns, but human concerns. I love the King James Version. It says, Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of man. You see, most of us, even if we've been raised in the church, have been raised to only trust the material and physical and to be skeptical of the spiritual. And Jesus confronts this in Nicodemus and he confronts this in us. He moves the conversation and the understanding from the physical to the spiritual. And that's why we use the term born again. A Christian is someone who has been born again. A Christian is someone who has had a spiritual rebirth. We have been given a new birth. And then it says we've been given a new birth into a living hope. Not just hope, but a living hope, a hope that is alive. Living things are dynamic, they're moving, they're capable of growth and change. Only the hope that comes to us from God can be living. All other hope in life is confined to the physical world of earth, space, and time. And everything in the material physical universe comes with an expiration date. It's not eternal. All earthly hopes come to an end. Only the hope, constituted from an eternal loving being, lives on beyond us. Think of it this way: this is kind of a practical example. The benefits and reality of a living hope enter our lives most visibly, or vividly, sorry, through the death of a loved one. You see, as Christians, we believe that death is not the end. Death is one stage in the continuation of our lives. Our earthly life is simply a short prelude to the real life that is to come. If heaven is ultimate union with God and enjoyment of his being and his new creation, then it is ultimate joy and satisfaction. And that truth gives us all hope when a loved one dies. It gives us a living hope. And Peter ties this to the resurrection. He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The new birth, the living hope, comes because of the reality of the resurrection. Our hope is living because the one who gives us that hope is living. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And when he rose from the dead, he brought with him all the benefits of salvation. Our sins were dealt with on the cross, and death was dealt with in the resurrection. The resurrection was a real historical event that gives us all hope over the final enemy, which is death. That's why Paul writes what he does in 1 Corinthians 15, 54 to 56. When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying, then the saying that is written will take place. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where death is your victory, where death is your sting. The sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. New birth, living hope. Then he goes on. He's given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. An inheritance. An inheritance is something that is received when someone dies, money, land, or possessions. But as members of the family of God, we get something because someone has died and because someone has risen from the dead. This concept of inheritance would have resonated with Peter's readers, assuming they're primarily Roman or Greek Christians, it would have been possible that they had faced rejection from their families as a result of their conversion, along with the cultural rejection that they would have surely had. Rejection of any kind always hurts. To be an heir in a family at that time carried identity, legitimacy, and status. So what that meant is that when a person converted to Christianity started following Jesus, they would lose their family identity, they would lose their legitimacy, and they would lose their status. It would all be stripped away. These sisters and brothers would also no longer have the security of future provision because they would become disinherited. This happens still to this day. I know people who convert in Hindu majority countries or Muslim majority countries, and they often will get disinherited. They will often get cut off from the family. So it's a pretty significant loss. It's a pretty significant sacrifice. But Peter here is using that imagery of inheritance to reassure those believers. He's saying, look, you might have lost your earthly inheritance, but look at what you receive instead. You receive an inheritance that is imperishable, it can't decay. You're receiving an inheritance that is undefiled, it can't be corrupted. You're receiving an inheritance that is unfading, it can't wear out. And it's kept in heaven for you. It's completely and totally secure. Peter is reframing identity. You're not defined by what you lost. You are defined by what God is keeping safely for you. And then Peter adds something really comforting. He says, you are being guarded by God's power through faith. This is not distant protection. This is a personal, sustaining, present-tense care. It's the idea not that God occasionally steps into help, it's that your entire life is held within God's faithful keeping. And this guarding happens through faith. Faith is the posture of receiving and resting in what God is doing. So we kind of have to hold these two things together. One is that God is guarding us, God is holding us, and conversely, we are called to trust Him. One commentator helps us here. The believer lives spiritually in God, and in virtue of his power, and God lives in him. The power of God, which guards the believer, is no external force working on him from without with mechanical necessity. Rather, it's the spiritual power of God in which he lives, and with whose spirit he is clothed. He comes down on and dwells in him, even as he is in it. Neither speculative knowledge and reason, nor works of seeming charity will avail severed from faith. It is through faith that salvation is both received and kept. So after summaring all that, we come to a rather sobering part of the passage, and it's in verse 6. It says, You rejoice in this. You rejoice in what? You rejoice in everything he's written so far. You see, the Christian is a person who rejoices, who celebrates, who revels in what God has done. All we've talked about are the source of our rejoicing: great mercy, new birth, living hope, an inheritance, and then being guarded, being protected by God. That is the reality for the light in the life of the Christian. But then Peter throws in some realism so that we don't live in some kind of false utopia. He says, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials. And this just shows me how realistic the Bible is, how realistic Christianity is. It is not the opiate of the people, as Karl Marx says. This is not some saccharin feel-good utopia that we're being sold here. Christianity is a realistic faith. It gives a sober view of life that is offered to us. Christianity tells us we will suffer, we will grieve, we will face trials in this life. But then there's this paradox, is how do we do both of these things? How are we to rejoice and suffer? How does someone worship and praise God in an oncology ward waiting for results? How do we rejoice when we are unfairly let go from a job we love? How do we trust and believe God is good when we have a loved one who is so far from the faith? Peter points us beyond our suffering. He says, in the midst of what is happening, a deeper reality is taking place. He says, your faith is being refined by fire. And he uses this analogy of gold. Gold is purified by fire. Fire melts off the dross, everything unworthy and unvaluable is stripped away. In the same way, suffering, grief, and pain can have the same purifying effect on our faith. Our faith can emerge more valuable through suffering. You know, most of my life, I've been a follower of Jesus Christ. I've followed Jesus for decades. And recently, in I and my family have entered into a very challenging season of life. I'm not going to go into all the details, but speaking in broad strokes, I was dismissed from my position as a lead pastor of a church here in Saskatoon. And that was an incredibly painful transition. And through God's grace, I've processed a lot of the loss. But there are elements of pain that I'll likely carry for the rest of my life. Two months after my dismissal, Felicia, my wife, was diagnosed with cancer. And I was left with wondering like, what's next? I get fired, my wife gets cancer. What's next? My house is going to burn down. But I'll tell you something, and I'm being 100% honest here. I am living proof of the words that Peter writes here. Because my faith, which has been tempered by suffering and loss, has emerged and resulted in what Peter writes: the praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. My faith is stronger, it is more resilient, it is more of an anchor to my life than ever before. Now, having said that, I didn't like any of these things that happened. And to be honest, I probably would not have chosen to go through them. Those of you who know me know that uh Tim Keller is a mentor and model to me. And unfortunately, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died a couple years ago. And obviously, that's a lot of suffering, that's a lot of pain, that's a lot of loss. But he made this comment that's always resonated with me. He said, I hate pancreatic cancer. I hate what it's done to me. But then he said, But my wife and I would never want to go back to the kind of prayer life we had before the cancer. He says that the cancer brought them into another level of intimacy with God. I hate suffering, I hate pain, I hate trials. I don't wish them on anyone. But if we let God, He can use the trials and the suffering that come into our lives as tools to form us into the human beings He won't created us to be, who can better reflect His glory to a broken world. And in the same way, I wouldn't have wished any of these things that have happened to us in this past year, but I don't regret the results that I've seen in the intimacy that we have with God through what we've gone through as a family. Peter ends like this. He says, so that the tested genuineness of your faith may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you don't see him, you love him, and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible. The passage ends with worship. We don't deny pain. We don't have some kind of fake optimism or positivity. We have a joy that is rooted in something deeper than circumstance. Christian joy is not the absence of suffering, it is the presence of Jesus Christ. To sum up, Peter gives us a vision of life that is both honest and hopeful. We are rooted in a great mercy. We've been given a living hope. We are promised an unshakable inheritance. We are protected by God's faithful power. We walk through real trials into a deeper worship. And that's how I want to end today's podcast is with worship. There's a couple songs that have been really meaningful to me during this season of challenge. And one of them is Hallelujah Anyways by Ren Collective, who I actually got to see last year. I think they were in Saskatoon. Got to see them in concert. Really, really fantastic. But anyway, these are some of the lyrics from this song called Hallelujah Anyways. I'll find a way to praise you from the bottom of my broken heart, because I think I'd rather strike a match than curse the dark. Yeah, I'll find a way to thank you, though bitterness is real and hard, because I'd rather take a chance on hope than fall apart. I don't think I'm ready to surrender into the dark. Even if my daylight never dawns, even if my breakthrough never comes, even if I'll fight to bring you praise, even if my dreams fall to the ground, even if I'm lost, I know I'm found. Even if my heart will somehow say, hallelujah, anyway. I hear a hymn of triumph in the wilderness of my lament. In the lowlands or the mountaintops, I won't forget all that goodness you've shown me, the promises you've kept. There's better days on the horizon up ahead. Even if my daylight never dawns, even if my breakthrough never comes, even if I'll fight to bring you praise, even if my heart will somehow say, hallelujah, anyway. Hallelujah, anyway. Thanks a lot for listening. Remember to subscribe and review and share, and we'll see you next week.