We're going to spend some time looking at 1 Peter
chapter 1, those words we heard read. And as
we come to this part of God's word, I wonder
if you could do something for me. Could you rate
your hope level right now? So look within, somewhere
on a scale 1 to 10, give yourself a number. How
would you rate your hope? I guess some of you,
it might be, actually it's quite high. Seven,
eight, nine, the sun is shining at last. The
summer is here. I know that over the last couple
of days, it's been coming towards the end of
time at college for some of you. Your heart is
singing with the last year or two or three or
maybe four years of theology and joy. All that
you've learned here is causing your heart to
sing. You can't wait to share it with those the
Lord is going to put in your path in the coming
months, coming years. But I wonder if there's
some in the room who'd put their number a little
lower. It's more like two, three, four. Summer
is here and it just feels a bit blank. I remember
that feeling at college. Like, what am I going
to do between now and September? And I'm not
really sure. And ministry is perhaps approaching
and you feel the weight of it. And you feel anxious.
Or perhaps ministry is not approaching and you
feel the weight of the uncertainty. Where's the
Lord going to take you? Just not sure. It is
an undeniable human need, hope. Psychologists,
sociologists, theologians will say humans need
hope. We cannot function without it. Before I
came to Oak Hill, I was a medical doctor. I worked
in care of the elderly medicine. And I learned
pretty quickly, looking after people 75 or over,
that there are, generally speaking, two types
of older person. There is the older person who
somehow has managed to hold on to hope, and it
shines from within them. They are smiley. They
are a joy to be around. They will tell you wonderful
stories of their life and their family and their
children and their grandchildren and all sorts
of other things. And then there's the older person
who has lost hope. And they are cynical. They
are bitter. I remember one woman, I will never
forget her, looking after her, and she was venomous.
towards all the doctors, all the nurses who were
seeking to look after her. She was very difficult
even to get past what was wrong with her and
understand what was happening. But there was
one moment when I was with her, when the curtain
fell, there was just a little chink as to what
was going on, and she said, look, I haven't got
anything to live for, just put me down. That's
what happens when you lose hope. But we, Christians,
we're people of hope. And you guys, many of you,
are training to be already professional people
of hope. Wanting to hold out the hope of Christ
to those in a world where hope is so desperately
needed. And I guess the question then is how
can we be sure? How can we really know for certain
that hope? When life is hard, when ministry is
hard, and Jesus promises it will be, how can
we be sure? that that hope has got a foundation.
How will you be able to keep watch over the flock
of God, as we heard in Acts, and hold out that
hope towards them? Well, 1 Peter is a book of
hope. It's a letter of hope written to a group
of struggling Christians. Many of you know this.
Ostracized, marginalized on the edges of society,
under threat of increasing persecution. And yet
Peter is unapologetically joyful, isn't he? Unapologetically
joyful. And he invites us in as we open his letter
and hear the first words, come delight deeply
with me in the hope of Christ. Delight deeply
in the hope of Christ. And so I want to ask,
I wonder how do you usually picture the writers
of the Bible? Do you ever do that? Do you ever
picture them as they write their letters? How
do you picture Peter writing 1 Peter? Who's in
your mind? Is it a fairly serious -minded guy?
Perhaps dressed darkly, thinking about high theology.
Serious matters, weighty matters. Is that who
you picture? I think sometimes maybe we're tempted
to picture the writers of the Bible like that.
But whether it's Paul in Ephesians 1 or Peter
here, praise be to the God and Father, our Lord
Jesus Christ. That is not the image that we get
from reading his words. Praise be to the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is overflowing
with joy. Verses 3 to 12 are one long sentence.
And I guess I once got a little glimpse of what
it must have been like to be Peter's kind of
amanuensis, writing out with Peter. When I was
chatting to one of my daughters a number of years
ago, I finished a long shift, I was halfway through
a long shift on the wards. It was late, it was
just about her bedtime, and I got a quick break,
so I rang her up. She must have been about three.
to find out what kind of a day she'd had. And
it turned out she'd had a great day. She'd been
to a toddler group at church. She'd had a gift
from her cousin in the post. She'd had some friends
over to play. And she'd had her favorite food,
the tea. I mean, when you're three, days don't
get much better than that. And as the phone was
handed over to me, this is what I got from her.
She just went, Daddy! Daddy, there's a sticky
bumblebee, Daddy. We went to Toddler's and my
cousin Alex sent me a picture and the story was
about Daniel and the Lions, which is my favourite,
and Matthew and Ethan came to play and we went
there on the train and there's a sticky flower
on it as well and I showed Matthew my toys and
it's so pretty, Daddy. And God rescued Daniel
from the Lions and we had sausages for tea. It
was just pure, unadulterated joy just tumbling
out of her mouth, no stopping for breath, no
stopping for punctuation, just sharing it. And
perhaps with a bit more coherence. That's the
mood we find Peter in here. Praise be to the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Come
delight deeply with me in the hope of Christ.
To which as we look around the world, and if
your hope level is down at two, three, four,
you might go, why? Why, Peter? Why, praise be?
Why delight with you in this hope? And I think
Peter gives us four reasons why. First, this
hope is rooted in God's character. In his great
mercy, Peter says. Which the immediate question
should be, well, how great? Just really, really
great? Like, we've got the greatest mercy? Is
that the sort of mercy? No, no, no, it's beyond
that. This is infinite mercy. Unfathomable. mercy
inexpressible inexhaustible mercy because this
is not just mercy which God does it's not just
that God acts mercifully is it it's that this
is mercy that God is it is what God is he is
mercy and love and grace and wisdom and justice
and knowledge and power he is all that he is
always at full volume all the time That is who
God is. Everything he is at full volume all the
time. You cannot turn this God down. You cannot
turn this God up because he is at maximum volume.
And that means he is unchanging. The unchanging
merciful one. Have you ever stopped to really
consider how significant that is? That God is
the unchanging merciful God, the unchanging God
of all? Because you and me and the world, we're
changing all the time, aren't we? As you sit
where you are right now, your body is making
25 million new cells per second. Your brain is
processing about 100 million new pieces of information
every second. Our location is moving at 66 ,000
miles per hour. Let alone the social and political
changes that affect our country all the time.
Compare that with God. Here's what A .W. Tozer
said about this. What peace it brings to the
Christian's heart to realize that our heavenly
father never differs from himself. Or in coming
to him at any time and not wondering whether
we find him in receptive mood. He is always receptive
to misery and need as well as to love and faith.
He will not fade. He does not keep office hours
nor set aside periods when he will see no one.
Neither does he change his mind about anything.
Today, he feels towards his creatures, the sick,
the fallen, the sinful, exactly as he did when
he sent his only begotten son into the world
to die for mankind. That is the unchanging mercy
of God, the great mercy of God. So Peter says,
delight deeply in the hope of Christ because
it's rooted in God's character. And it is also
dependent on God's initiative. Verse 3 again,
in his great mercy, he has given us new birth.
That's a pretty deliberate image Peter is using
there, new birth. New birth, you can't take credit
for birth. I mean, it would be ridiculous to
consider one baby saying to another on a maternity
unit, see that? Smashed it. No, birth is something
that happens to you. New birth is something that
happens to us. And this new birth has two wonderful,
wonderful directions. It is new birth into an
inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or
fade. Remember, Peter was talking to ostracized,
marginalized Christians being disinherited in
their society. And he says, here is an inheritance
which is undying, undefiled, undimmed. So delight
deeply in the hope of Christ. And second, verse
4, into an inheritance that can never perish,
spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven
for you. There is no fading in this living hope
that Peter is describing. It's not the kind of
hope that comes with supporting England at sport.
No. Undying. Undefiled. Undimmed. So delight
deeply in the hope of Christ with me, Peter says,
because it is of supreme value more than anything
you could possibly conceive of. Whether that's
possessions, family, reputation, ministry, the
success of ministry, whether that's the opinion
of your fellow students. Or your faculty. The
hope of Christ blows it out of the water. All
because it is dependent on God's initiative.
This is not an identity, this new birth, this
living hope, this inheritance, is not an identity
which is achieved. It's an identity which is
received. Something God does for us. And that
runs against every single idea about human identity
that we hear in our culture today. We are meant
to be self -constructed individuals, self -actualizing.
We live in the age of what Charles Taylor calls
optionality. The age in which belief in God is
optional and assumed to be optional. It is possible
not to have a belief in God. That's the age we
live in. But here's the thing that we perhaps
missed. As that puts us into a space where we
are taught, told, we have to choose belief, choose
identity, become architects of ourselves. What
is it that we're trapped in? The fact that we
have to choose at all. The optionality is itself
trapping. There is no option other than to be
a chooser, as far as our world understands it.
But we have the hope of Christ, the delightful
hope of Christ that brings freedom to those trapped
in choosing. We do not need to be sovereign selves.
We can have the freedom of being the creatures
of the creator who made and saved us. So delight
deeply in the hope of Christ. Because this is
going to be kept by God's power. Verse 4, this
inheritance is kept in heaven for you. Imagine
the greatest, strongest possible trust fund.
No financial crisis can touch it. Kept for you.
But even more, you are kept for it. Verse 5,
who through faith are shielded by God's power
until the coming of the salvation that is ready
to be revealed in the last time. What is it Jesus
said? I give them eternal life and they shall
never perish. No one will snatch them out of
my hands. So delight deeply in the hope of Christ,
because as you trust in Jesus, it is kept for
you and you are kept for it just as much. Is
it any wonder that Peter delights? Can you see
what God has done, he is saying? Can you understand?
Can you let it sink in? Let this fire your heart.
All that God has done, no matter how dark the
sky might feel, there is always hope that the
sun will rise. But Peter, it's so dark. And the
time before the dawn is always the coldest. Peter
knows. Here's the fourth thing. It is refined
by God's plan. Verse 6, in all this you greatly
rejoice. Notice Peter takes that for granted.
Of course you greatly rejoice. Though now for
a little while you may have had to suffer grief
in all kinds of trials. Christians don't have
to float six inches above the surface of the
earth as though it doesn't touch us. Especially
Christian ministers. We don't have to do that.
Peter is realistic. And he presents to us a life
and a world of multicolored trials. Pink, purple,
yellow, like a bruise. Ostracized, threatened,
facing life in a fallen world, fighting with
sin, but most of all suffering for their faith,
for being Christians. Which means, notice, the
reason for the trials Peter is describing and
the reason for the hope Peter is describing are
the same. Does that not make the hope somewhat
naive? Is Peter naive? No. Two reasons. First,
these are passing trials, just for a little while.
One day we will look back together and we will
look on even the greatest of trials that we have
walked through, whatever they may be. And we
will see them as old tales as we stand before
the throne of the king. And second, they have
a purpose. These have come, verse 7, so that
the proven genuineness of your faith of greater
worth than gold, which perishes even though refined
by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor
when Jesus is revealed. You ever seen a picture
or even held gold that's just been dug up out
of the ground? It's beautiful. It glitters. It's
also kind of ugly. It's kind of just sort of
lumpy. Put that into fire and you can make something
stunning. And so it is with the new Christian.
There is a great beauty in what God has done
in giving them new birth. But he will spend the
rest of that Christian's life. beautifying that
Christian, until they glitter with love for Christ,
until their gaze is captivated, utterly captivated,
with nothing else but the hope of Christ. Ten
years from now, as you sit here, I'm about nine
years out from sitting there. So cast your mind
ten years from now, sitting here at Oak Hill.
What do you hope for? To see amazing things in
your ministry. To see the Lord transforming people.
That they might grow in their faith. That they
might come to faith. Maybe even seeing a revival
that's actually there and not even quiet. Seeing
amazing things. Do you know what would be a tragedy?
If you saw all of that and your love for Christ
had not deepened. Your love for Christ had not
grown. But here's the problem we fight with.
We want comfort more than we want holiness. We
want ease more than we want hardship. We want
success more than we want sacrifice. And so we
sting when we hear writers like Paul Tripp say,
God will take you where you don't want to go
in order to produce in you what you could not
achieve on your own. I wonder, do we really believe
it? Some of the hardest days in ministry. have
been for me, will be for you, some of the best
days in the classroom of grace. And you see the
result? It's seen. It's visible. Because what
we behold is what we become. What we delight
in is what we display. These things result in
praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is
revealed. To which the obvious question is, whose
praise, glory and honour? And we all go, wow,
Jesus is, right? And Peter goes, did I say that?
Did I say Jesus is? So do we owe ours? Can't
be right. Why not both? I wonder if you've ever
climbed a mountain just before dawn. My wife
climbed Kilimanjaro during her gap year. Got
up there just at sunrise. Treading up through
the snow, the bitter cold. absolutely awful,
hard steps, and then the sun burst through the
horizon. And it wasn't just that the sun was
glorious. The whole world glittered with glory.
Because when Jesus is revealed and the sun rises
for the final time, the point is we will reflect
his glory. Because what we behold, we become.
What we delight in, we display. And the point
for us now is that the sun hasn't yet broken
the horizon, but it is colouring the sky. Pink,
purple, yellow. Not a bruise, but the coming
of dawn. And so Peter writes, though you have
not seen him, you love him. And even though you
do not see him now, you believe in him and are
filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.
For you are receiving the end result of your
faith, the salvation of your souls. See what
happens when a Christian keeps on going through
the trials of life. When Christians in ministry
keep on going through the trials of ministry,
is Jesus is shown to be worthy. As we delight
deeply in the hope of Christ, the hope of Christ
is seen to be worthy of our delight. He is more
precious than anything we could possibly imagine.
Possessions, family, reputation, ministry, success,
even the opinion of those sitting around you
right now. And so from 1 Peter, Jesus has this
question for us. Will we delight deeply in him?
Will we delight deeply in him? Will we delight
so deeply that it will bring the certainty in
all uncertainty, the determination in hardship,
and the unshakable, unmistakable worth of Christ
put on display as we delight deeply in our hope
in him? Let me pray for us. Our Father in heaven,
we praise you and we worship before you, the
Lord, the giver of all things, the Father of
our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We praise
you for him and we ask that we would delight
deeply in the hope that you have given us, that
that might issue in praise and glory when Jesus
Christ is revealed. Amen.