HOPE THAT'S ALIVE | 1 Peter 1:3-12 | Hope in the midst of Suffering

hope is a powerful thing I mean think about it when you have something you're looking forward to it gives you a kind of gusto and hope is a powerful thing when you're looking forward to vacation in a week that's a week away when you're looking forward to that day off it gives you endurance on that Friday afternoon you know the feeling of hope but we also all know that feeling of letdown when the hope has come and the hope has gone when vacation is over when the Christmas presents have been opened when the birthday has come and gone we feel that Christmas blues we feel that letdown that Monday morning reality that hope only lasted for a moment we all have things that we place our hope in we place that that that hope is something future maybe it's the next stage of life maybe it's retirement maybe it's settling into that home that you've dreamed of maybe it's the next job or the next promotion and we all have these hopes these things that we place our hope and maybe life will get better when maybe it's the thing maybe it's that car you've always wanted maybe it's maligne up for the newest electronics and wait for hours they camp out outside and then the letdown when the iPhone screen shatters hope come and go but there is a hope that does not die in the book of first Peter sinners its focus upon that hope I was this week it was in the news actually just about a week ago it was in the news that Michael what is his name Michael Scott Oh something he he was he was taken captive for three years by Somali pirates and was imprisoned and he's in the process of writing a book about his experience and he he I was watching this interview with CNN as he was talking about his experience and in the interviewer asked how did you hold on to hope as you were in this rural conditions of captivity and he said I couldn't I couldn't hold on to I couldn't place my hope and seeing my family again I couldn't place my hope and living again because those hopes would be dashed and that is the reality for most hopes in this world that the hopes will come and go but there is a hope that will not die if you have your Bible oh would you turn to first Peter chapter one as Peter begins his letter first Peter chapter one we read in the first verses of first Peter he gives his kind of general address to his audience and kind of gives us a little bit of the backdrop so I'm going to read that for us we're not going to spend too much time here but he says Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect exile of the dispersion in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia Bethany ax according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling of his blood may Grace and peace be multiplied to you now there's a lot that could be said here but let's get the general context as Peter we imagine Peter this disciple who's one of Jesus's inner circle he's writing this letter to believers and he's writing he calls them elect exiled they are he has a reason that he refers to them as exile you see believers in the early establishment of the church were scattered all throughout Asia Minor he's writing to what would probably be like modern-day Turkey right now and believers are scattered around in this area and they're being persecuted they're being persecuted mainly by the Jewish people because the believers in Jesus has claimed Jesus as the Messiah and the Jewish people have rejected Jesus as the Messiah and so they're enduring persecution not only from the Jewish people but also from the Roman government and so what we find is Peter is writing to the church in a time where suffering was at its height they were well-acquainted with suffering and he calls them the elect exiled now exile is usually a kind of a negative term but Peter as he writes his letter is going to turn that turn to be something positive because what Peter wants us to realize is that we're all exiled we're in a land that's not our home and Peter is going to place his hope and he's going to write to his audience the church is enduring suffering to encourage them notice what he says in verse two according to the foreknowledge of God that the suffering they're walking through this this is the time that they're in that the place that they find themselves as exile is not outside of the knowledge of God let me just pause here to say whatever life circumstances you brought into this room this morning whatever you're walking through at home in the workplace whatever troubles you at night not outside of the foreknowledge of God there's a beautiful comfort there that Peter wants us as the readers to realize and the Spirit of God wants us to realize that God cares so he begins his letter in verse 3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the central question is Peter means on through it through this letter in verse 6 he says in this we rejoice so he starts with bless God and then he roots to rejoicing and the question we have is in a world full of suffering in a life full of pain and despair where hopes are crushed and we just feel like we can't hold on to hope because they'll be dashed that they will come and go how do we rejoice how do we praise God in the midst of suffering this is what he says in verse 3 according to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead Peter tells us that we have a Living Hope and not a regular old hope that comes and goes but a hope that is alive now how do we know that our hope as believers in Jesus is alive he tells us he says through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and I've said this once I'll say it a million times the resurrection of Jesus changes everything because Jesus conquered death our hope is not grounded in this life our hope extends beyond the grave so that is what makes our hope you nique that is what makes the Christian hope something that you can't find out there in the world you can't find it in the shopping mall you can't find it in the biggest development in the neighborhood you can't find it in any other religion does not have a living hope the Christian faith has a hope that extends beyond the grave our hope is in Jesus so the source of this Living Hope he says is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and the direction of this hope knows what he says then is to an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled unfading kept in heaven for you now inheritance was the common way of describing value of describing the promise of a descendant inheriting a family's riches or its land and and this was a way of establishing a value with an inheritance and so what we are what we see here is he tells us that our Living Hope our hope that does not die it has an inheritance it is looking forward to something that is not yet here but is a promise of what is to come and this is what he says he tries to describe it but the only way you can describe it is by describing what it's not you see if you notice that he tries to describe the inheritance that we have but he describes what it's not it's imperishable undefiled and unfading hopes in this world will be dashed they will come and go but our hope does not die it's kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time this is the hope that we have in Christ that we have a future inheritance that one day every tear will be wiped away that we will be made new there will be a new heaven and the new earth and for those who place their faith in Jesus this is salvation that we will dwell with God and this is the hope of the Christian faith this is a Living Hope because it's not grounded in anything in this world it's grounded in the reality that Jesus rose from the dead and he will one day raise us to be with him so this is the hope this is the Living Hope that we have it's a future hope the Peter wants us to realize he doesn't he's not just a have you heard the phrase um - so heavenly minded you're no earthly good that Peter is not there and I'll be honest I've never known anyone where that was true it I don't think it's possible to be so heavenly minded to be no earthly good because the more we set our eyes on the hope that we have the stronger we are for the present and that's what Peter says in verse 6 in this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you've been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus this is what he says he says we can rejoice in the midst of suffering because we have a Living Hope that gives us a faith that cannot be shaken he says we in this rejoice and oh now you're you're walking through trials and some of you this no the reality of that and if you're not walking through a trial right now I've got encouragement for you there's one coming this life is full of trials this world is full of suffering but we have a Living Hope that gives us a faith that cannot be shaken it uses a picture of a gold being refined by fire if you ever seen one of these videos where gold is like boiled down they boil it down in the ore it's like the the impurities it comes out and it becomes more precious and in Peter's day gold was the most precious thing he could think of as he's writing this and he says but still gold if you fire it too long disappears but he says your faith is more precious than that it's more valuable than that it is stronger than that your faith cannot be shaken here's what Peter wants us to get this morning and I hope I hope we can let this sink in is that faith is where the rubber of Hope meets the road of suffering faith is where the rubber of hope meets the road of suffering because if we have truly grasp that we have a Living Hope when that rubber meets the road of suffering we can hold on to a faith that cannot be shaken our faith is refined David and Nancy Guthrie they are a couple who was they were raising a family and their daughter was born there they're in the hospital and after the birth they rushed the daughter off to the nursery to run some tests there just something wasn't right and in the ow Wars and days that followed they discovered that their daughter Hope had what's called Zellweger syndrome now Zellweger syndrome is a genetic disorder in which hopes body was missing what's called peroxisomes and i don't know the science behind it but basically the gist i get of it is that there in ourselves we have like these trash men that clean out the toxins and her body was missing these and the doctors told her there's no cure there's no hope she probably only has about six months to live and so David and Nancy they loved their daughter and six just over six months later their daughter passed away they learned more about the genetic disorder and similar cystic fibrosis they learned that there was a one in four chance that their children that their child would be born with Zellweger syndrome so they decided at this point they already had a older son they decided they weren't going to have any more children to their surprise about a year and a half later she got pregnant and they knew the odds and they wrestled with it but they were hopeful you know it was 75% chance that their child wouldn't be born with Zellweger syndrome and nine months later their child was born with Zellweger syndrome and just under six months later he passed away Nancy wrote a book called holding on to hope and in this book she wrote these words trusting God when the miracle does not come when the urgent prayer gets no answer when there's only darkness this is the kind of faith God values perhaps most of all this is the kind of faith that can be developed and displayed only in the midst of difficult circumstances this is the kind of faith that cannot be shaken because it is the result of a faith that has been shaken Peter writes to us in first Peter chapter 1 verse 6 and this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you've been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor the revelation of Jesus Christ how did Nancy hold on to faith in the midst of absolute despair losing two children without hope because her hope was not found in life here on earth her hope was found in the living Christ and when we have this kind of living hope we have a faith that cannot be shaken because when it is shaken it only gets stronger purer more genuine so faith is the rubber of Hope faith is where the rubber of Hope meets the road of suffering but not just that it meets it with inexpressible joy there's what he says in verse 8 though now you have you have not seen him you love him though you do not now see him you believed in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory now Peter kind of pauses his explanation of how our Living Hope transcends into our suffering and it transcends into strengthening our faith and he pauses here to kind of give us a zoom out for a moment you guys know I have this drone that I I fly kind of as a hobby and make videos with it and one of the things is when I'm flying I have a little screen and there's a camera on the drone and it shows me what my drone sees but there's times where I'm flying and and I just have the feel the view of the drone and I don't see the drone and and I get lost I don't know where I am all I see is trees and there's this little button down the corner that can click on and it brings up a map shows me the streets around it shows me exactly it's got GPS it shows me exactly where the dhrona and it shows me ok here's where I need to go to get home if that's a bit of what Peter does here in verse 8 he zooms out he gives us our coordinate our GPS coordinates because if you and I both know when we're walking through trials when we're walking through suffering there's times where we just feel like we're over our head though the water is just all around us and we can't quite get a grasp on where we are and we're trying to hold on to hope we're trying to hold on to faith but we are quite sure which way to swim which way is up and which way is down and I think Peter knows that his audience might be feeling that so he zooms out a bit shows them where they are on the map of faith and he says though you have not seen him you love him though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory there are times in our lives where we have to remind ourselves of this truth in fact in your bulletin you've probably found a orange sticky note I'd encourage you this week to write down that verse 8 write down verse 8 here on that sticky No and stick it up somewhere as a reminder to you now maybe it's in your bathroom or on the dash to your car somewhere where you'll see it on a regular basis and let it remind you of the truth you might not see him right now you might not see what he's doing in that trial you're walking through you might not see how God plays into the situation at home or the situation at work but you love him you may not see him but you believe him and here is the reality is that when faith faith is where the hope the rubber of hope meets the road of suffering with inexpressible joy and the kind of joy in that that he's talking about is the kind that you just can't explain it that the pink contentment and delight when everything else around me is havoc and despair there's this joy he says it isn't even it is not even expressible it's not it's not a smile on your face it's not saying an old happy day all the time but it's deep deep rooted contentment that our hope is not found in this world Mary teaches me what that joy is day in and day out she has a joy that you know what week we make these videos and we we try to explain it but what we've learned in the process of making videos is that it just can't be explained it's inexplainable joy inexpressible joy can only be shown can only be seen brothers and sisters let me tell you this that when the rubber of hope meets the road of suffering there is an inexpressible joy to be found there when we walk through life with that kind of living hope notice that joy people notice that contentment that deep deep delight in visas they eat more valuable than anything in this world and when we walk through life with that kind of living hope we realize that Jesus is everything that's what as what Peter goes on to explain in verses 10 through 12 he talks about concerning the salvation the prophets he talks about how the prophets they proclaimed about how someone would come a suffering servant in the spirit of God inspired them and this whole conclusion verse 10 through 12 went off time to dive into the intricacies of it but he says the prophets the people who wrote the Old Testament and proclaimed that that was someone would bear your suffering bear your sorrows they didn't know who that would be he says you know him though you do not see him you love him though you do not see him you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible he says even angels long to look into these things because your faith our Living Hope is more valuable than anything in this world when the rubber of hope meets the road of suffering faith is refined joy is experienced and Jesus is everything Firestone tires had a commercial maybe some of you remember it in like the 60s 70s it it went wherever wheels are turning wherever no matter what the load the name that's known is Firestone where rubber meets the road and many of us get our thing where the rubber meets the road from that commercial wherever wheels are turning no matter what the load the name that's known is Firestone or rubber meets the road a car doesn't really have much value until the rubber meets the road that's where that's where it really matters is can this thing actually move can it can it go faith is where the rubber of hope meets the road of suffering with inexpressible joy because jesus is alive i said it again faith as to where the rubber of hope meets the road of suffering with inexpressible joy because jesus is alive so whenever your heart is turning no matter what the load the name that's known is jesus he's where the rubber meets the road when your life is met with suffering when you don't know where else to turn hold on to the living hope of our salvation our jesus our savior he's alive

Channel: Peter Frey

Views: 2,168

Rating: 4.8632479 out of 5

Keywords: peter frey, sermon, hope in suffering, holding onto hope

Id: 3AAzfxwvE_c

Length: 28min 1sec (1681 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 17 2017