Amen. Well, I remember as a kid, I loved to swim
during the summertime. Anyone else love to swim
during the summertime? Yeah. Fun getting into
a pool, whether it was a kiddie pool or one of
those ones you buy at Costco, you set up in your
backyard, right? Or one of those built -ins,
right? Like, woo, fancy, the neighbor had the
built -in, right? Woo. Rolling in the dough,
yeah. But what were some of the games that we
used to play? Like, you remember playing games
in the pool? I remember we used to play Marco
Polo. Anyone play Marco Polo? Yeah? Or Sharks
and Minnows? I don't know what era these games
are from. Or some water volleyball or throw the
ball at each other, right? Or whatever it was,
right? Splash each other in the face. That was
a good one. But there was one game that you could
play in the pool, whether the pool was a kiddie
pool size or the built -in one, and that was
how long can you hold your breath underwater,
right? It was always a competition between me
and my siblings or my cousins or my friends whenever
we were there. It's like, how long can you hold
your breath? Well, let's see. And we'd both go
under and hold our breath and see how long we
could hold it. Well, maybe it was 70 seconds,
maybe a minute and a half. Maybe you'd get a,
you'd squeak two minutes out of it if you were
really, a really big lung capacity, right? But
it made me think as I was thinking about this,
what is the world record for holding your breath
underwater? So I looked it up. And I want you
to listen to the way it's phrased first because
this cracks me up. This is amazing. Listen to
the way it's phrased. The world record for the
longest time breath held voluntarily underwater.
The longest time breath held voluntarily underwater
is 24 minutes and 37 seconds. 24 seconds. You
know, an average sitcom, if you take out all
the commercials, is 22 minutes long. The entire
episode plus a few minutes holding your breath
underwater. There's a scene in a Mission Impossible,
I think it's called Rogue Nation, where Tom Cruise's
character is underwater and he's having to make
some repairs or whatever. He held his breath
for six minutes to film that scene in continuity.
Six minutes he had to train to do that. Well,
he was beat shortly after that by I think it
was Kate Winslet in the newest Avatar where she
beat him I think by two minutes and held her
breath for a scene underwater. Just crazy. 24
minutes though. And we all know that 24 minutes
is crazy. Just out there. But why can't we stay
underwater and hold our breath forever? Well,
we also know that, right? We need oxygen to live
and water doesn't provide it in the way we need
it to stay alive. And Peter here in this book,
in 1 Peter, he's talking to exiles dispersed
abroad who are encountering all kinds of difficulties,
all kinds of trials and sufferings. And for them,
it could feel like they are drowning. How many
of you guys have ever felt like, man, society
is falling apart. We are caving in to sinful,
corrupt ways. We're giving ourselves over as
a people to things that we ought not give to,
that God does not approve. And we see everything
falling down around us. And we just think, I'm
going to hold my breath and wait it out. Sometimes
it feels like that. Sometimes it feels like we're
underwater holding our breath, just going to
wait it out until glory comes. Now, Peter's talking
to a group of people who are right around the
time of Nero, and Nero's outbreak of persecution
in the Roman Empire is going to be severe, and
it's going to target Christians. And so when
Peter writes this letter and he begins to speak
to them, this is the context that they're in.
But he knows something about them too, that these
believers are made for heaven, that they are
reborn again of the Spirit, and they need the
air of heaven to survive. Just like you and I
need the air that's maybe an inch or two or a
foot above us when we go underwater. So they
need the air of heaven in order to survive because
they are born of heaven. And so Peter is giving
these believers and us today oxygen for the soul.
You ready to take a deep breath of oxygen for
the soul? That's what Peter is all about right
now. Verses 3 through 12 celebrate the certainty
and the beauty of our salvation because of God's
mercy, Christ's resurrection, and believers are
born again into this living hope. And we're being
refined through present suffering and trials
and are promised an eternal inheritance that
even prophets of old and angels stand in awe
of. And this secure salvation of ours fuels our
joy and sustains our faith and anchors our future.
I want to tell you something. The greatest earthly
joy. Think of all the joys you've experienced
in life or all the joys you want to experience
in life. The greatest earthly joy that a believer
can experience is the joy of the assurance of
their salvation. There is no greater joy. And
that's what Peter is going to give us today.
That's what Peter is going to breathe by the
power of the Holy Spirit working through him
into our lives. If you're taking notes, the first
thing I'll have you write down is a living hope
through a risen Savior. A living hope through
a risen Savior. The first breath of fresh air
that Peter sends to us. is in verse chapter 3,
which is praise, or blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter starts with a
word of praise, which is an echo of a frequently
used Old Testament formula that went something
like this, blessed be the God most high, or in
Ruth chapter 4, blessed be the Lord, or in Psalm
41, blessed be the Lord God of Israel. But Peter
does something interesting here in his blessing.
He changes it and adds to it a name that God
never revealed in the Old Testament. God revealed
himself as all kinds of names based upon his
character and who he was in the Old Testament.
But there's a name he didn't reveal himself as
in the Old Testament that Peter includes in there.
And that is God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And he's referring here to that first
person in the Trinity, God the Father. And one
thing that we have to remember, just kind of
a little theological note, like doctrinal note
here, is the father doesn't mean that he created
the son or caused him to come into being. Scripture
is clear that the son has always existed and
was never created. What it means that the first
person of the Trinity is the father and how he
relates to the second person, the son, is as
a father would relate to his son in normal life,
not in begotting him or birthing him, right?
It's the father plans and directs, the son responds
and obeys. The father sins and the son comes
from the father. The father creates through the
son. And Peter encourages those who have heavy
hearts. He gives them a remedy like none other.
Praise God. Is your heart heavy? Praise God,
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Not because of how desirable we are. Why? Because
of his great mercy, we are reborn. That's why
we praise God. Not because of our merit, not
because of us at all, but because. of who he
is because of his great mercy through which he
has given us new birth into a living hope. What's
this new birth? Well, a new birth is a total
new beginning. Being born again is not about
turning over a new leaf in life or trying harder
or not some self -improvement plan. The new birth
is about starting over entirely, being spiritually
Recreated. The new birth is a work of the Spirit.
Just like you had no part whatsoever in your
physical birth, so you have no part in your spiritual
birth. It is a work of the Spirit to regenerate.
The new birth, though, gives you a new identity.
You are no longer defined by sin or failure or
alienation from God, but you are one who is loved,
beloved, inheritor of glory, and secure in your
salvation. The new birth means new purpose and
direction. It gives you a new citizenship. I
don't know if you've ever held a seed in your
hand. We've got some gardeners here. Have you
ever held a seed in your hand? It looks dead.
It's hard. It's lifeless. It's closed up. But
what happens when you plant it in the right conditions?
In the right conditions, it bursts open. It sends
out its roots and its shoots. What we thought
was dead comes alive suddenly. It's a miracle,
honestly, if you've ever watched a time lapse
of a seed. coming to life on YouTube. I would
encourage you to do it. It's like, that's just
crazy. Even the smallest seed. Well, new birth
in Christ is like that. What looked like a spiritually
dead life, God brings new life, new growth, new
hope. And just like a growing plant leans towards
the sun, the life of a believer leans towards
the light of Christ with hope for the fullness
of salvation to come. We're told it's a new birth
into a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead. Well, the part that
says into, this means a new realm. We move from
a lifeless, dead realm to a living, hope -secured,
vibrant, glorified realm. Into a living hope.
Well, I want you to think for a moment about
how we use that word hope. How do we use the
word hope in our modern vocabulary? I can think
of a few things. We'd say something like, man,
I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. Or I hope I
get that job that I applied for. Or you might
say, I hope pastor only has one point because
he's going really long right now. One of 18.
Just kidding. In the New Testament, however,
hope is something that is way stronger of an
idea than our idea of hope is. In the Bible,
hope is confident expectation. Everyone say confident
expectation. Grounded in the character and promise
of God. It's confident expectation grounded in
the character and promise of God. It is never
used by the apostles to mean maybe. Never. We
use it to mean maybe all the time. It is never
used to mean maybe. It's like, think of the most
trustworthy person you can think of. The person
who does what they say, follows through all the
time, is a rock and solid presence in your life,
no matter the circumstance. Now imagine that
person says, I will be there to pick you up at
6 p .m. Are you thinking, oh man, I hope they
get here at 6 p .m. I don't know if they're gonna
come. Where are they gonna be? What are you thinking?
You're thinking, no worries. They said 6 p .m.,
it'll be 6 p .m., it's as good as done. Hope
in the Bible is that multiplied by infinity.
Because the character of the one who's making
the promise is infinitely more good, infinitely
more secure, infinitely more reliable than any
human you have ever met. And that character of
the one who's making the promise That's the idea
of hope in New Testament. Our hope is not a maybe.
It is a must be because God himself has sworn
it. So that's what hope is, but why is it a living
hope? Well, it is a living hope because it is
a hope that is rooted in the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, the living one. Because Jesus lives,
hope lives. If Jesus were still dead, hope would
be too. But because he walked out of that grave,
our future is secure. Our future is sure. A dead
hope. is based on temporary things, things that
can pass, things that can waste away. A dead
hope dies when our dreams are shattered. A dead
hope crumbles in death. But a living hope is
built on eternal promises made and secured by
the eternal, unchanging one. A living hope grows,
even and maybe in some cases or in one sense,
more so in trials and suffering. Grows. Deepens.
A living hope conquers death itself. The living
hope that we're talking about is a resurrection
-centered hope. The resurrection of Jesus is
not only something cool that happened to Jesus.
It is cool. But it's not only something cool
that happened to Jesus. It actually is a promise
to us as well. His resurrection is a promise
to us as well. The tomb is empty, so your hope
doesn't have to be. And the oxygen of hope in
our future resurrection is infused into our souls
as we glory and bask in the effect of the resurrection
of Jesus Christ on our lives, that it secures
for his people, for us, a future resurrected
body and a new spiritual life today. See, Christians
don't receive that new body in this age. How
many of you guys are feeling that today, right?
Wishing for that new heavenly body. Well, we
don't receive it in this age, but God grants
us renewed spirit while we wait. And we're told
that 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. A new spiritual life,
a new body in the resurrection, and an inheritance
that we are brought into in Christ. And you think
of a will or an inheritance that you might receive
from a family member. You don't receive it because
you earned it. You receive it because of relationship,
because you are part of the family. It is yours.
And what is this inheritance that he's talking
about? Well, this inheritance is this echo of
this promise that God made first to the people
of Israel, that he would make them into his people,
that he would bless them. And that in the end,
he would give them a promised land, a place,
an inheritance in Canaan for them. It would be
theirs. And Peter's drawing on that imagery to
say, hey, you also have an inheritance. You're
not the people of Israel, and you're not going
to get Canaan, but you have an inheritance. You
have a promised inheritance in the same way that
God made good on his promise even after 40 years
in the wilderness and a lot of years in slavery.
God made good on his promise. to get his people
to the promised land, you also have an inheritance
and God is the same God who makes good on his
promises. And so I ask, what is our inheritance
in Christ? What is this thing that we are to
hope for and get excited for in glory? And well,
it is salvation to the fullest. We talk about
salvation and we boil it all the way down to
a decision on a day at a time in a moment. That's
not salvation to the fullest. That may be the
doorway. That may be crossing the threshold.
But salvation to the fullest is union with Christ.
It is full redemption of our bodies. It is life
in the new heavens and the new earth. It is a
share in the glory of Christ. It is meeting God
face to face. And Peter says, well, it's imperishable.
Your inheritance can't rot. and it won't wear
out over time. And he says it's undefiled. Sin
itself and corruption can't touch it. What does
that mean for us today? That means when you feel
like you have screwed up too much, and you wonder
if your inheritance is being taken away from
you, no. Your inheritance can't be taken away
from you. Once it's given to you, it is undefiled.
It is not, your sin can't reach it. It is kept
by God. It's all unfading too. Unfading, unlike
earthly wealth. I don't know if you've experienced
this, but you get money and it's really, really
shiny. It's really, really exciting when you
first get it. Maybe you get a windfall of money.
You get that tax return, right? We're rich, baby.
We got $900 back. And then like within a few
hours, it switches from, we're so rich and we're
so excited to, It's starting to go away. How
do we keep it? There goes another $20 and another
$20, and it's fading, and the anxiety starts
to come in, and the luster and the glow of the
money starts to go away, and pretty soon you're
mad at it, right? You ruined my life! Our inheritance
isn't like that. Our inheritance is unfading.
It's unlike earthly wealth that loses its charm
and glory. This inheritance that we have in Christ
never withers, never dims, never loses its beauty.
In fact, it grows in beauty as we grow in Christ.
And it says finally that it's kept in heaven
for you. But it's not just the inheritance that
is kept. We're told that we are as well. I've
said this before here at Village. I'll say it
again. Our salvation is tri -faceted. It's tri
-faceted. It comes in three parts, you might
say. We break it down this way, in three ways.
We have been saved. We have been saved. And when
I say that, I'm talking about the rebirth, the
regeneration. There was a moment when I was saved.
The theological term is justification. I was
justified, made right before God on the basis
of Christ's merit. It was given to me and I was
saved. It happened already. It's done. That's
the first facet of our salvation. But there's
also another facet, which is we are being saved.
We are being saved. This is a new desire is beginning
to come. We begin to desire what God wants. We
begin to desire holiness and obedience. We begin
to hate sin and want to see less of it in our
lives. We war against it. Holiness begins to
increase. The theological word for that is sanctification.
We are saved. Justification. We are being saved.
Sanctification. And lastly, the third or the
tri -facet of our salvation is we will be saved.
We will be saved. Future tense. Glorification
is the theological term. And that is when the
inheritance that is promised to us, the new resurrected
life, the union with Christ, the inheritance
in the kingdom of God, the keys to Zion City,
as we'll sing about later, are given to us in
the future. And it's something we hope for. Even
as we have been saved and we are being saved,
we will be saved. That is the fullness of salvation.
A lot of people just go, hey, I said the prayer
and boom, I was justified and I'm going to hunker
down and wait. You have not experienced the fullness
of what salvation is offering you, what God is
calling you into. And therefore, you can't glory
in it and see the beauty of it. If you can't
see the beauty of it, you can't get the hope
and the joy that comes from it. And he's inviting
us in to see, oh, salvation is bigger than you
could imagine. Peter says you're being kept and
carefully watched by God's power to get you to
glory, to glorification, the final act in the
drama of salvation. But he says God's power does
not work to guard and keep you apart from the
personal faith you exercise as a believer. It
is God's power through faith that guards us.
And what is faith? Well, faith is loyal love.
expressed in obedience. Loyal love expressed
in obedience. So do you want to have confidence
that God is guarding you by his great power?
Do you want to know that you are kept by God
for the day of salvation, for glorification?
Well, if you continue to trust God through Christ
in loyal love expressed in obedience, then God
is guarding you guaranteed. And you will not
fall or fail to reach your inheritance. You will
get there. Because he ain't backing out on his
promise. Number two of 18. There's only three.
All you type A's out there are like, wait a sec,
I gotta know. And the other two are short. 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,
honor. At the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though
you have not seen him. You love him. And 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. Suffering is real.
Amen. Suffering is real. And suffering can cause
all kinds of grief. Amen. Suffering is real.
And it causes grief. But suffering is temporary.
It's temporary. It is the nature of our suffering,
if we are in Christ, is that it is always temporary.
It's temporary, but it is also something else.
It's also a trial, as he said. And there's something
unique about a trial. Well, what is a trial?
It's where evidence and arguments are collected
and presented to determine whether something
is what it claims to be. A drug trial, for instance,
is to determine whether a pharmaceutical does
what its creators claim it does without too many
adverse side effects, right? A criminal trial
is to determine whether the prosecutor's claim
against the defendant are able to be proven in
the court beyond a reasonable doubt. That's what
a trial is, a criminal trial. And Peter is saying
that the recipients of the letter and us today
are encountering various trials that produce
grief in our life. Amen? Anyone going through
it? Produce grief in our life, but they are temporary
in light of eternity and they serve an important
purpose. And that important purpose is what?
To prove the character of our faith. To prove
the character of our faith. We may not like it,
but trials and suffering unveil us. They unveil
us in a way that nothing else can. They expose.
At least a few things. The first thing is trials
and sufferings expose our idols. We have idols
of our heart. Where have we put our ultimate
hope in? What have we attached our future to?
What in our life, if we lost it, would throw
us for a loop and cause us to feel hopeless,
without security, feeling like a wave tossed
about? Those are idols and nothing exposes them
like suffering and trials. Brings them right
to the surface. When our idols fail to provide
the security and the hope and the future that
we vested all of our energy and our worship into,
that's suffering and trials expose that. They
can't hold up under the weight of it. But second,
suffering exposes our flaws and the limitations
of our own self -righteousness. We may go about
thinking we can save ourselves. We've got it
covered. But trials and suffering make it very
plain and abundantly clear to us that the person
over there in my mind, over here, right? This
guy over here, he is freaking out. He's lost
control. He doesn't seem like a very good God
at the moment, does he? He's not handling the
circumstance and situation very well. He's lost
it. Maybe I can't save myself. Maybe I need something
outside of myself, a righteousness that is not
of myself, but is, as the old reformers called
it, an alien righteousness, something from outside
of myself that is brought to me because the thing
that I've manufactured in here is falling apart
and I can see it happening, playing out right
before my eyes. Trials and suffering expose the
places where There's limitations in our own self
-righteousness. We can't save ourselves. And
we can see it plain as day. But third, and most
importantly for this scripture, trials and sufferings
expose the hidden works of God within us. Expose
the hidden works of God. Have you guys ever experienced
that? After maybe a long period of relative ease
in your life, maybe growth, maybe a hunger for
his word, time in worship. More intimate times
in fellowship and devotion with God. After a
period of time, a trial or suffering comes that
in the past, the past you would have been thrown
for a loop. It would have knocked you down. You
would have been tossed all about. But now it
seems for some reason that same kind of trial
coming your way in this moment is actually producing
hope and confidence in God's goodness and his
power to sustain you. Anyone ever had that experience
where you're looking at yourself going, who is
this? I am not the same person. Well, trials
and suffering expose that in us. They help us
to see it. In fact, they're the only kind of
pressures that apply the necessary pressure in
order to draw those things out so we can see
them and ultimately give glory to God, glory
and honor and praise to God for what he's done
in my life. Wow, Lord, look what you have done.
I am not the same. You have changed me. I didn't
even know it. I was going on as if life was all
the same. But this trial, this suffering brought
to bear, brought to evidence that you have actually
been working in my heart and our patient endurance
through suffering proves the character of our
faith in salvation. It proves it real that we
are not the sin -enslaved, unbelieving soul we
were once, but that we are a new creation and
we are a work that he has promised to bring to
completion. Number three, if you're taking notes,
a salvation worth waiting for. The last three
verses of our scripture today are actually pretty
amazing. In verse 10 through 12, Peter pulls
back the curtain to show just how massive and
marvelous our salvation really is. And here's
what he says. He tells us that the prophets of
old, that Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, They searched
and they studied the scriptures that they had.
They studied the revelations and the prophecies
that God had given. They studied with all their
heart. And they were trying to understand when
and how God's great rescue plan would come to
be. They were trying to figure it out. And as
they're looking at it, the spirit of Christ within
them was testifying to them. Hey, hey, it is
working out. It is happening. But it's not for
you yet. It's for someone in the future. You
remain true. You remain steadfast. You speak
what I tell you to speak. But what you're speaking
is not going to come to fruition, not to come
to fullness. In your lifetime, it's for something
future. And it says that they leaned forward
on tiptoe, longing to see what you and I now
get to experience firsthand in Christ. Our salvation,
the prophets got up on their tippy toes to see
what is this going to be like down in the future?
Well, we know what it's like. We're experiencing
it today. The salvation you've experienced is
the salvation they peered forward, leaned in,
and tried to see. And Peter says, well, it's
not just the prophets. Oh, it's not just the
prophets. It's actually even the angels. Those
glorious beings who stand in the very presence
of God, they are captivated by the beauty and
the mystery of your salvation. God in his infinite
wisdom did not think to disclose to them the
whole plan of salvation, but allowed them to
witness it unfolding after thousands and thousands
of years until today. And to this day, angels
lean forward. They lean forward to see, to peer
into the unfolding story of grace in awe that
God would pour out such mercy and grace on people
like you and I. Church, do you see it? Do you
feel the wonder of this salvation? Peter has
spent these verses breathing oxygen into our
souls, filling our lungs with the living hope
of what is already ours and what is being worked
in us even now and what is waiting for us with
certainty, confident expectation, and glory.
Your salvation is not small. It's not uncertain.
It's not something that you had to be good enough
to attain. And it's not just for some day. It
is for today. I love the way this Puritan pastor
from the 17th century, Thomas Brooks, put it.
He said, the greatest thing we can desire is
our own salvation. And the sweetest thing is
the assurance of that salvation. The greatest
thing we can desire is our own salvation and
the sweetest experience is experiencing the assurance
of it. Christians, you can know, you can live
with full assurance, not just crossing your fingers
and hoping for the best someday. Maybe, I hope.
I'm secure. But standing with confidence on the
finished work of Christ, guarded by the power
of God, walking toward an inheritance that cannot
spoil, cannot fade, and cannot perish. Thomas
Brooks also said this, all saints shall enjoy
a heaven when they leave this earth, but some
shall enjoy a heaven while they are here on earth.
Some of you get to breathe the oxygen of heaven.
while you're here some of you if you look at
your salvation and you gaze upon it in glory
and mystery and wonder you will begin to experience
the assurance of your salvation which is the
oxygen of heaven oxygen of hope the oxygen of
joy and you'll get to experience that here on
earth without assurance you may still reach heaven
but you'll miss the joy of heaven on earth You'll
limp along in fear when you could walk in confident
joy. You'll second guess his love when you could
rest in it. You'll hold your breath in anxiety
when you could breathe the oxygen of living hope.
So I'm going to invite Gabe and Anissi to come
up as I leave you with these questions. Are you
living like you have this kind of hope? How many
of you are living your life in salvation as if
it's a maybe? Is it a maybe, possibly? Are you
rejoicing in this salvation, even in the trial?
Are you leaning forward like the prophets did
and the angels did, captivated by the glory of
what God has done for you in Christ? Are you
looking to Christ for your salvation? and for
your assurance salvation. I say today, lift your
eyes up to heaven, breathe deeply the air of
heaven, and rejoice fully in your salvation,
because you have been born again into a living
hope, and that hope will never die.