1 Peter, 1:1-5
Vern Peterman · Oct 8, 2006
1 & 2 Peter (2006-07), No. 02
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492604131539

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So, first Peter 1, 1 through 5, and then this reference sheet, what I suggest that you do if you're keeping this in some kind of a binder, put it in some place where you can keep ready reference to it rather than have it tucked away. The idea being is we'll keep looking back at this. You'll also notice there's something on each side. Let's take a look at it here for a minute before we dive into the details of our passage.

First Peter, at a glance, gives us the sweep of themes throughout the book of First Peter. Salvation for the believer, the belief of Christians, and holiness, to summarize it in a word. Then submission of the believer, behavior of Christians in harmony, suffering of the believer, buffeting of Christians, and humility in a word. And then each of those is divided into some sections with some titles under that.

So it'll kind of give us a picture of where are we in this thing. So we don't want to get lost in the details. So that would be point one. And Debbie, we don't want you to be lacking in anything here. You must have the important papers. OK. You must have the important papers.

We'll take a look, obviously, at 2 Peter when we get there. Turn to the flip side, a comparison of 1 and 2 Peter. And what we have there is a theme and some comparisons and contrasts below that for 1 Peter. 1 Peter, the theme is hope in the midst of suffering. 2 Peter, the theme is the danger of false teaching and practices. We've picked out from each one of them kind of a theme verse.

First Peter 2.2 is in the middle of a sentence, but if you'll excuse that, like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.

And second Peter 3.18, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. and some room there for you to make some additional notes if you'd like to.

All right. So keep this in some handy spot so we can continue to look at it. And as we teach through this, we'll continue to make reference. All right. Now, 1 Peter 1, 1 through 5 is what we're covering here today, and we'll take a couple of breaks in the middle of that to look at some PowerPoint slides I think you'll find helpful.

All right. How many of you feel like an alien? You do. OK. All right. He'll even testify even beyond just raising a hand. OK. You're ready to elaborate on that. OK. All right. Good. Glad to hear it. All right.

To those who reside as aliens scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood, may grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. So here's Peter's introduction here. He identifies himself by the name that the Lord gave him. Mark 3 16 gives us the quick summary and he is Jesus Appointed the 12 and the list begins there and it starts off with Simon to whom he gave the name Peter As was mentioned before Simon and Peter he also called safe us and just to give a little detail simon was a have a nickname for for simian or they actually would have pronounced it shimian and uh... so that was one of the uh... names of the twelve tribes right and uh... that shimian means hearing it's based on off of layers uh... declaration in uh... genesis twenty nine uh... in verse 33 then she conceived again and bore a son and said because the Lord has heard that I am unloved he has therefore given me this son also so she named him Simeon or in the Hebrew Shimeon we mentioned also that the name Peter was given by the Lord and that means a stone or a rock and he was also called Cephas or actually the Aramaic was Kephas And that's just the Aramaic word for stone or rock.

Yeah. I've kind of heard it from other sources that when Jesus made the declaration to Peter of Caesarea Philippi, he used two different forms of the word for one being a large rock and the other one being small stone. uh... yeah the one you're referring to you know you you are peter but upon this rock that's the one you're referring to that you are peter petros the the small rock but upon this rock large rock i will build my church so yeah there's a distinction that he made in the names there thanks for pointing that out well this is terrible that's awful which page are you talking about The first one or all of it?

Well, that's that's just horrible. Some other papers. Yeah. Can you hand this back to me? I got it. You got it. Yeah. But this is entirely different. OK. All right. OK. Got you covered. All right. Don't want anybody to be without paper here. Having ample paper is our theme, right? Oh, boy. Is it left-handed or right-handed paper? Oh well, we'll forget that. Alright.

Now, he introduces himself as an apostle, right? An apostle is both a specific designation and a general designation. The word apostle, we think of apostle and we think of the twelve and Paul, right? But the word apostle had been in use before these guys ever got called. So what did it mean? What's that? It means messenger, but a little bit more specific than that. Pardon? A sent one. A little more specific than that. You got the cheat sheet in front of you. Yeah. What does it say? Pardon?

Special messenger, okay? Angelos, which is often translated angel in some contexts, is also the word just for a messenger. Apostolos is a special messenger. That is, someone who has a particular appointment, rather than the general designation of being a messenger.

Okay? So there's the distinction. People would say that someone was an apostle, an apostolos, under varying circumstances if they had a special message assignment. So here, it has a specific use in the New Testament. Someone might be a special messenger, but not be officially an apostle. Yes? It's kind of like saying, well, that car is a Mercury, that car is a Mercury marquee. Yeah, there's a special designation within just being a messenger. Right.

And so that's what he's saying here is I am an apostle. I am sent by the Lord, but I also have the official designation. I'm one that the Lord particularly put me into this role in this place. It's beyond just even a general special messenger as they used. They'd have somebody who was entirely unsaved that would be called an apostolos, just because they were sent on some special message. And this is particularly sent by the Lord as his apostle, as a specific designation. That's what he's using it for.

We have down here five bullets, and these indicate things that are particular to the apostles that the Lord sent. An apostle received a gift in office by the sovereign decision of God. God is the one who made the appointment. An apostle had to have been an eyewitness for the resurrected Lord. This is one of the criteria that Peter used when Judas dropped out of the race and was appointed in his place. An apostle is endowed with power to perform signs, wonders, and miracles. Alright, so should I do that this morning? Or should we wait for the main service? Wait. What do the rest of you say? Wait. I should wait a long, long time, huh?

What's that, bud? Yes Yeah, just down the street here and and and again my my daughter went to a church not too long ago that had the guy who claimed to be an apostle His name is so hard to pronounce. They just called him apostle C. But anyway An apostle had to have these criteria Met and you couldn't just go put yourself, you know with this label an apostle had success in evangelism interestingly enough that that a specific aspect of an apostle.

They had success in evangelism and the Lord particularly blessed and appointed them for that. An apostle had the capacity to suffer patiently and persevere. Real interesting, an apostle seems, sometimes the term is used, it's a super gift. Did an apostle act as an evangelist? Yeah, often. Yeah, sure, certainly. He was a pioneer. Sure. Isn't that what Paul did when he went into a lot of these cities for the first time?

He went to Philippi, and there he went and spoke to the Jews who were gathered there at the river in Philippi. He talked to the Philippian jailer. He carried out the gospel message to people. If you look at it, what did they also do? They acted as elders when they were in a church situation. Peter, we'll find out later on in chapter 5, calls himself a fellow elder. While here he calls himself an apostle. So an apostle is a collection, a special collection of other gifts. They would also teach. They would also write scripture, which there is no other gift specifically for you.

Alright, now, Peter wrote this letter as a special messenger of Jesus Christ. Here's Peter's viewpoint, and I put it this way, consider Peter's viewpoint on what he had seen and heard and done and come to know from the day the Lord had invited him to be his disciple and then sent him out as one of his apostles. Think about the things that Peter went through. Both borderline betrayer. Yeah, isn't that something?

Yeah, Doug. Yeah Uh-huh Ah Okay Yeah Yeah, that's right he could have said nothing doing Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, but no, thanks, right? Yeah, I Consider Peter's listening to the Lord teach, seeing Him perform miracles, as well as Peter doing and saying things both praiseworthy and detestable. Yeah, think of that. And one of the Gospels indicates that when he had denied the Lord three times, he glanced across the courtyard and they exchanged glances.

Can you imagine that? What would that be like? I don't know Him. I don't know Him. I don't know Him. and then looking at him across the courtyard. As he had already been warned, he would do it. That must have just stung right to the heart. Really phenomenal to ponder that. Let's take a look at something here.

Matthew 8 5 this is right after the Sermon on the Mount in fact This is the a picture of the traditional location of the Sermon on the Mount And you see kind of left and center in the picture of the Sea of Galilee in the background there This is just to the west of Capernaum at the north end of the Sea of Galilee the Sermon on the Mount was chapters 5 through 7 so this is right here when they went to Peter's home. Here's verse 14. When Jesus came to Peter's home, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick. Who's mother-in-law? Peter's mother-in-law. What does that tell us about Peter? A married man, got a wife, got a mother-in-law.

It's interesting, there's lots of other questions. How many kids did he have? Lots of questions we could ask and don't have answers to. But this is an interesting tip. Yeah, this is an interesting tip-off, you know, and kind of fascinating to ponder.

Let's take a look at the next thing, if we can. Here we go. Here is a shot from up in the air looking from the west side of Galilee towards the north. Here's Bethsaida, okay, over here. Capernaum, which is where Peter's house is located, we'll kind of zoom in on it in a little bit here. Yeah. Can people see if there's too much glare with the light? No, no, no. But just the lights, because there's a lot of glare. Yeah. Let me let me try that and see if that helps. Is that better? Better? OK. Let's take a look.

Here's the Mount of Beatitudes. Remember I showed you. In fact, let me just switch back. See that picture there? That is taken from that location that you see pointed out. OK? This is looking down towards the sea. You can see the Sea of Galilee there. And then right here, there's the perspective that it's taken from. See that? And then, so this would be on the west shore here. So Capernaum's right on the north. Here is a closer view, again from the air, but closer looking at Capernaum. And right here, see this? This is the synagogue.

Turns out that what you see there was actually built a century after Jesus was there, but they built it on top of the foundation of the one that was there when Christ was in Capernaum. And in Capernaum there, It was one of the larger towns or cities along the Sea of Galilee. Here are some interesting samples. This is some fish on the lower left that were taken out of the Sea of Galilee. It would be similar to what Peter and Andrew and James and John would draw out of the water and sell. They would market their fish in three different ways.

Fresh fish, which was pretty uncommon. You'd have to be right there on the shore The next thing is dried fish. They would put down a layer of fish, a layer of salt, a layer of fish, a layer of salt, and let it dry. And that was probably what was used in the feeding of the 5,000. Remember the fish that were broken up in pieces? The salted, dried fish would have been the other.

And the third form was fermented fish paste. Fermented fish paste, and that was actually a staple Protein source for the Roman army fermented fish paste and they even had military grading for it They would they would know how we use butter and various kinds of spreads on bread they would use fermented fish paste And put that on the bread So that was what you would eat very commonly. And between the fermented fish paste and this rather kind of dried bread, you can have something you can carry along with you somewhere and you wouldn't worry about spoiling because there's no way to keep it.

Anyway, this boat up top was one from the time of the New Testament. Some people call it Peter's boat or the Jesus boat. We don't know that for sure, but it was found recently when there was a drought and the Sea of Galilee dropped down and this became visible as a boat from the New Testament times right there next to the shore. So very interesting. So that was brought up, which is quite a chore, and you can see that they've got it supported with a structure there, but it's a significant part of a boat right from the New Testament times. And then here is a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. This would give you an example.

They deal with nets and things of that sort. One thing that was different, this guy is fairly well covered. In the New Testament times, they would be more likely stripped down. I don't mean flat out naked, but stripped down. Because it's hot, it's a lot of hard work, even out on the water. Plus, if you've ever been out on the water a lot, there's a lot of sun reflecting back at you.

Here's an archaeological drawing of what is believed to be Peter's house in Capernaum. Are we absolutely certain it's Peter's house? No. A lot of evidence points in that direction, however, and it appears, I would say the evidence is circumstantial. It appears that it actually was Peter's house. So this would be the house where Jesus was with the mother-in-law.

Yes, question mark. Yes, yes. Yep. Have you been there? Ah, okay, yeah. Let's look. Is this what you're talking about? Yeah, that right next to the synagogue. It's a fairly large structure. Yes. Here is the archaeological drawing. This is what it would look like, you know, some of what is remaining inside and has been excavated. Here's another shot.

Would the entire family, Peter's family, live there? I mean, okay, he has a mother-in-law, I know that. The typical thing would be, let's go back to the picture, this is a fairly large setup and what you might have is typically if you had kids and they were married they would move out on their own but as parents became older sometimes they would come back into the home particularly if they were in need of care or Let's say the mother-in-law is there, where is the father-in-law? He may have died by this time.

It would be common to bring people in. Also, typically, people often, if they had equipment related to their job, that was also in the home. and not the typical pattern to have a special separate, like a separate carpenter shop or a separate fisherman's place. They would frequently have those right connected to the home if you had your equipment. So these are a couple of places right inside the home that's been excavated there.

Okay, now let's get back to this, and for this I'll probably flip the light back on. We'll take a look at some slides again when we get down to Oh, please do. One of the interesting things that we saw there in the rock, the synagogue, was similar to what we would think in our day and age was hopscotch. Ah, yes. It played games. It was there for the kids to play. Things like that. Isn't that amazing? Sure the various kinds of games that they would have carved into the rock.

Yep Okay Consider also Peter's apostleship recorded from the end of the Gospels through Acts 15 how much he had experienced Imagine here is Peter. It's it's been less than two months since I said I don't even know him and now he stands up in front of these people and and lays out the gospel. Thousands of them. Yeah. Here are thousands of people.

They're caught together and it's right in the midst of and following an event that was completely inexplicable. What is going on? What's with you people? This noise and racket and you're saying things that we just can't comprehend. So Peter stands up. That was less than two months before! Can you imagine what that's like? August, September? It would be like in August. He had said, I don't even know him.

Three times. And then this. What an astounding change. What a phenomenal thing to look at. Look at this next part on the top of page two here. How the Lord had restored and changed him almost two decades. in the almost two decades that span those chapters from the time the Lord had talked to Peter on the very shore that we looked at here just a moment ago. Talked to Peter on the shore and Peter had denied the Lord and so the Lord came and said what to Peter? Pardon? Yeah, first there was a question.

Do you love me? Yeah, of course I do. Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. He didn't just say, are you my buddy? He said, you is the most intensive. Yes, yeah. Not, do you love me like hot dogs? But, is there a love in your heart for me that is a most intensive love? Is there? Oh, of course. Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs.

Imagine the impact of that when days before he had looked across the courtyard at the Lord after saying, and the Lord knowing full well, I never knew him. Wow. Consider finally the three decades that have passed since he saw the Lord ascend into the heavens from the Mount of Olives with the others until the time when Peter wrote this letter we're reading. Imagine what has taken place. one of your fellow fishermen and close friends has died, James.

By this time, the apostles are going off in different directions. We have record extra-biblically of the others. Thomas, by this time, appears to have gone off to Madras, India. Others went over to Babylon. Matthew, we have record, died being staked to the ground. They were running stakes through him into the ground. Meanwhile, he was telling them the gospel while they were staking him. That's the kind of thing that had taken place, and now Peter's writing. Consider Christ our Lord with whom we are now seated.

One of the things that we're going to see as we go through 1 Peter, Peter does not state some of the things that we've been seeing Paul state, but what he does is he assumes it. Get this? He doesn't state, for example, you're seated in the heavenlies, he assumes it. He doesn't state you have a heavenly citizenship, he assumes it. See that? Let's take a look here.

And consider Christ our Lord with whom we are now seated, in whom we are blessed with every spiritual blessing, being in Him by God's doing, who is our life, and whose coming for us is our blessed hope. Peter next tells us about the recipients of this letter first addressing their spiritual standing while living on planet earth. The words who reside as aliens translates the Greek word Per epitomas, which has the idea of a resident foreigner. You're living here, but you actually are from and have a citizenship and an allegiance somewhere else. Right? That's the idea.

Peter was saying in one way what Paul said to the believers at Philippi, for our citizenship is in heaven. You have a citizenship somewhere else, but you're here on planet earth for a while, for a time, for a particular purpose. You're staying here, but really your allegiance and your citizenship and the place you belong, the place that's your heart's home is somewhere else. What a message to send. He's really saying the same message as Paul. You have a heavenly citizenship. That's where you're from. That's where your allegiance is. That's where your heart's home.

Peter then named several regions in what's now Turkey. Let's take a look at those. We had this map on last week's handout, and I'll have it up here just so you can refer to it. He lists several different places, and one of them is Asia. So that includes the seven cities of Revelation, including starting off with Ephesus. Then there's Bithynia up a little farther to the north, Pontus at the very northern part. Galatia is mentioned, which is, of course, a place where Paul wrote a letter and had first ministered. And then there's also Cappadocia is mentioned.

I'd like us to take a look at that. That's right off in kind of the eastern part of the general region that Peter had listed. Now this looks like a biblical era tomb. Let's turn the lights off again here. This looks like a biblical era tomb, the entrance, right?

Where they'd have a kind of a cave carved into the hillside and a stone, round, large stone rolled in the middle. It is, however, the entrance to a large underground city. The Cappadocians had underground cities that could hold as many as 20,000 people. Some of them were up to 18 stories deep.

Can you imagine that? The building that Nancy and I are in is 12 stories, so this is time and a half that. And it's down, and no elevator. But you see, like this here, they put lights in. Obviously, they would go with torches. But people would be living underground in these places. And it would basically be a skyscraper in reverse. It's a groundscraper, OK? Fern, why did they do that? Was it for security reasons? Yes, several reasons. One is because it's, let me go back up to the map.

You see where Cappadocia is? Now, if you are, remember there are several empires that started over to the east, right? Some of them, what can you think of that started to the east? What are some of the empires we've been talking about in our Isaiah study? Babylon. Assyria. Persia.

So what happens is these empires try to come through your territory and they're wanting to get somewhere else into the rest of the land and you're right smack dab on the path and after a while you just get tired of that stuff! Doggone you guys! So what do they do? They can carve into places like this. Let's take a look and see what this is like.

Now, you're an invading army and this stone gets rolled in front of the opening. Now, if you're an invader, what's the first thing you're going to do if you see a stone with a hole in it in front of the opening? You're going to look in the hole. And what are the people inside going to do when they see an eye in front of the hole? Boink! And so what happens is, even if you have a massive army, the massive army just got narrowed down to one at a time. Even if they get through that, they're coming through one at a time.

And you can have little surprises ready for them. The little thing up above here with a pile of stones. Or more of these. Yes, you can really have all kinds of tricks and traps. Instead of having this open field army, you now narrow down this massive army to come at you one at a time. So, it was a lot of it for protection.

It also had lava houses. Look at that. So not just underground, but just lava houses with lots of openings. And think also of an invading army. Could you have little, again, trap doors, fake entrances? I mean, you could give an invading army fits. Because they can't figure it out. How do they survive there? Are there fields around?

Oh yeah, I mean, these are the houses, then you go down, you know, and of course you've got everything from the sheep and crops and all that stuff, but this is where you live. And it lasts really great, there's no roofing job to do every, you know, generation or so. Now, isn't that basically, in the early ways, just called today Turkey? Yes, yeah, Eastern, Central Eastern Turkey, yep. Here's some guys who are on tour. See all those houses?

And some of those can be fake entrances. Some fellow who is attacking thinks he's entering a house, and what he's entering is a trap. So answering your question a little bit more, Doug, from a military protection standpoint, hey, this is great. Another thing, what is an attacking military going to do? They're going to shoot what kind of arrows? What good does a flaming arrow do here? Zip. Does nothing, right? You're going to hurl sling stones. Sling stones going to hurt those? Nope. So a lot of the typical attack approaches didn't work.

And look at all the different holes and openings all over the mountainside. So they would have lots of different places like that. So you're ready to move in. So anyway, that's just Cappadocia. We'll take a look as the weeks go on at some of the other places. So we don't fill up one whole time with it. But I think it's fascinating. Yeah. Yeah.

Very even temperature and makes it a whole lot easier to deal with. Even if you had snow falling, by the time you get some kind of protection over the opening or something like that, you've got the mass, the thermal momentum, if you will, of the rock around you to keep things from getting too cold or too hot. How do they get air in there? Oh, that actually works very well.

Are you talking about these or are you talking about the underground city? This one. Like this. They actually would have vertical air tubes that would go up and of course what they would have to do is make those come up in some hidden place and protect that so that doesn't end up being an attack area. But they would have various kinds of air tubes and things like that. And it's amazing what they would generate. They would have fairly natural air circulation.

For example, let's say I have a tube that goes in like this and then one that goes like that. Put that entrance tube facing a prevailing wind. The wind comes in and just natural air circulation. And nobody's got a pump or a fan or anything. So pretty phenomenal. Pretty amazing stuff.

So, let's take a look back here. We'll get the lights back on and take a tour through the rest of this. The next he talks about foreknowledge and being chosen. And, you know, boy, there are people in theological schools and theologians who like to sit there and argue about chosen and foreknowledge and come up with all sorts of theories.

I say forget it. Peter is writing to these people that are going through, as we'll see, a tough time. And would it make any sense that a guy who was a special messenger from the Lord, who had been grown up and lived the early part of his adult life as a fisherman, to come to these people who live with all sorts of variety in their lifestyle, but are all going pretty much through a tough time, do they need some sort of theological hypothetical challenge? Does Peter have in mind that's what I'm going to pass along to him?

I'll give him a philosophical quandary. No. He wants him to know you have been chosen because you are special. God considers you special. You have been selected by God. Isn't that a wonderful thing? That's what he wants him to know. And God's foreknowledge. Is God's foreknowledge some dreaded machine that just cranks out The future? One step to the next and we're just a cog in the machine? No. He wants them to take comfort. God knows what's happening.

God's not surprised about what's going on in your life. These are good messages, not something to haul off in some theology book. Not something to write a thesis about. I guess you could, but that's not what Peter intended. He wanted them to take it to heart and he wanted them to be encouraged and comforted by these words. So if you want to argue about chosen and foreknowledge, fine. I'm just not particularly interested. Okay, look at this here.

The next thing that shows up in here is all three persons of the Trinity are involved in our salvation. Did you catch that? Let's step back here and look at it. according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood." Are all three persons of the Trinity involved with you?

Yes! Isn't that neat? Think about this. You are chosen. You have the foreknowledge, and again, these are not intended to be some cold, hard, philosophical, hypothetical concepts. This isn't a theology debate. He is giving them comforting words and all three persons of the Trinity are involved with you. All of God, all of God is active in your life.

Isn't that cool? That's a wonderful thing. This is phenomenal stuff. What comforting words those are. And for what these people were going through, what a perspective to give them. You know that tough time you're going through? Do you know that all three persons of the Trinity, all the Godhead is involved with you personally? This is wonderful stuff. This is fantastic. They're not going, gee, let me ponder that and let's argue about that for a while. Let's go off into our theology texts and wrestle around with that. They're going, yes! Okay? This is wonderful news. Okay.

Peter offers grace, which is the Greek greeting. The Greek people would say to one another this grace, charas, okay? And peace, the Jewish greeting would be shalom, okay? And he puts those together as Paul also did in places. Both of which go beyond the significance of the usual greetings. You know, if we say howdy to somebody, sort of short for how are you doing, right? Often times it's just taken as a casual greeting. I don't think, again here, I don't think Peter means to just give him a hi, how are ya? This is grace and peace with a depth and a significance that this world can hardly comprehend. This is phenomenal stuff. Grace is God's infinite character. Here he just says grace. How long are we going to be learning about grace? Forever.

Here's Ephesians 2.7.

It will take ages and ages and ages and ages and ages for God to show. And the word means to demonstrate. And it's used in the Greek Old Testament when the Lord demonstrated miraculously before the children of the Lord his character and his power. That's the word he's talking about here. He's going to show us his infinite grace on into eternity. That's the word that Peter's using here.

That kind of grace to you. Infinite grace. How about the peace? The peace describes the character of relationship between God and the saint, the new condition within the saint as the saint is filled with Christ, and between saints as they share his life. Peace with multiple dimensions. peace with eternal character to it. Isn't that something? Grace, now, that's infinite and eternal. Peace, now, that has multiple dimensions and is infinite and eternal.

Wonderful stuff. 1 Peter 1, 3-5, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time."

1 Peter 1.3 is virtually identical to the start of Ephesians 1.3.

This is where, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, where we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, that's the same way that Peter starts 1 Peter 1.3. Blessed be the God and Father.

And so then, you hear it's from the Father's abundant mercy Rich in mercy is Ephesians 2.4. Isn't it interesting the comparisons that we're able to make here between Peter and Paul in their writing? Rich in mercy, abundant mercy. Is God skimpy in mercy? Has God got just barely, barely enough? Are his mercy resources just stretched to the limit?

No! Not even sort of. Imagine most of the people who are receiving this letter are poor. Imagine what the word wealth means to them. They've hardly seen a wealth of anything. A wealth of mercy. Abundant mercy. Some of them, all they know is abundant blisters.

So this is amazing stuff. We have been reborn into a living hope. Isn't that something? Why would this be so significant to Peter and so significant to the people that he was writing to? Why didn't he just say a hope? Because it's active. It's active. Alright. Good. Thanks for that. Active.

What other dimensions does that convey to you? You think a living hope. Why is that different from just a hope? Pardon? It continues. It's active and it continues. Good. What else? It's sure. Okay? It's a certain hope. Ever heard of a hope or had a hope dashed? You're hoping but are disappointed. Is this one of those? No. See? It's a living hope. Yes? And it clarifies too that the hope in Jesus Christ is to be alive from the dead. Yeah. Yeah.

When Peter and the disciples Imagine him that late afternoon, Jesus is dead. They've seen him, heard him, some closer, some at a distance, some maybe second hand. But unto you do I give up my spirit. It is finished. He breathes last. How do you think they felt? Crushed. That was a hope dashed, wasn't it?

But then, when Peter and John hear, the Lord's alive! What?! The Lord's alive! What did they do? They sort of saunter and stop by and pick up some fish and chips on the way? No! What did they do? They ran! POW! Running in there and zooming into this tomb, and it's empty. The graveclothes are laying there. I doubt they even stopped. Yeah, just BANG! WHOA! Then they saw the Lord multiple times, as Paul recorded, as many as 500 people at once, seeing the Lord resurrected.

So when Peter says a living hope, he's not talking about something just hypothetical. He testified to it as a personal witness, and he said that numerous times. He will testify here, later on in this book, as a personal witness. John, starting off 1 John, we're telling you what we've seen and heard and touched. This is real stuff.

So when Peter says living hope, he's not kidding. When Peter says, living hope, he isn't saying, boy, I sure hope so. He's saying, I could hardly believe it, but I had to when I saw the tomb was empty and the grave clothes were laying there, and when I saw the Lord Himself. And when Thomas doubted, then the Lord said, see the marks. Check it out for yourself.

You think Peter believed it was a living hope? He was not carrying on something that was just a sort of a, gee, it'd be a nice idea. Or we sure had high hopes that it would come out this way. No. This was a genuine living hope. This was an amazing living hope. An eternally living hope. What's that? Yeah.

Peter wrote that God the Father is to be credited with our salvation to an inheritance. And this is a key point in the way he says it. We think of our salvation, and what do we think of oftentimes? Somebody will say, are you saved? What do we mean by that? Have you been saved? Yeah, we oftentimes think of saved from something, and we oftentimes, what's the time frame we usually think of? Pardon? We think you're saved now, but we look kind of back to, has there been a point in the past where you've been saved?

The way he puts it here is saved not from, as we have in the illustration, from the penalty of sin, from the presence of sin, from the power of sin, from the presence of sin, but saved to. Saved to. What is the direction toward which we are saved? And he gets them looking at salvation in that direction. What do we save not only from, but what do we save to? And the save to is a who. Save from sin.

Eventually this whole sin thing is terminal, isn't it? We're going to be done with this stuff. The whole sin issue is going to be behind us and not something to contend with someday. I hope it's today. But someday it'll be gone. But saved too? Is that going to be gone? No. That's a forever.

That's why He's reminding them. You are saved too. And the saved too is a who? The saved too is the Lord Jesus Christ. And you have that living hope because He is living. And it's a sure thing. And He says, I've seen it. I've seen Him. And it's a real thing. And so He points to the saved too as as the aspect of salvation that he wants them to focus on. So our salvation is centered upon the person of Jesus Christ and whom we are. Is the saved from good news? Yes it is. But the saved too is even better. And that's where he puts the focus. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing.

I have it here, we have been saved in the past from the penalty of sin, in the present from the power of sin, and in the future from the presence of sin. When we go to see the Lord of glory face to face, that's the presence of sin, being saved from the presence of sin. It is that future time that Peter points to in verse 5, which is not just a save from, but a save to, to him, Jesus Christ, our living hope. Okay, comments, questions, consternations, exasperations, jubilations.

Yeah. and sometimes if you've done something wrong and you look at somebody like that you're like, oh you're no good, you know what. But I think his was a look of such wonderful love for Peter Turner and it just must have done something to Peter instead of crying her out.

Eyes of grace. Can you imagine looking into the Lord's face? Hold on just a sec, we'll get you. Imagine looking into the Lord's face and looking into eyes of infinite grace. Oh, that's phenomenal. Peter must have been stung to the heart, but also overwhelmed. Look at the eyes of grace, infinite grace, that I'm looking across the one whom I said I don't even know.

Yeah, Tom. Well, he also said long before all that took place in the palace of Herod that, I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith fail not. And some time later on, I began encouraging the others. I thought that those words probably just hit him like a ton of times. Yeah. This guy, Peter, had some incredible things happen in his life. But did you have something you were going to say?

No. OK. You just look like you were. OK. All right. OK. Anybody else? Okay, let's do pray. Let's go to the Lord. Lord, as we look at this, what a marvelous introduction to just a tremendous book. And Lord, the richness that is there from the words and the heart of this man, Peter, the one whom you appointed. And Lord, how incredible a thought we are saved to, saved not just to some condition or situation, but saved to a who, our Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, what things we have to be thankful for, such richness, such depth, such amazing grace. We thank you for this, Jesus. Amen.