1 Peter, 1:6-9
Vern Peterman · Oct 15, 2006
1 & 2 Peter (2006-07), No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492605157649

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

and killed hundreds of thousands more with twelve legions of Roman soldiers. They brought in soldiers as far away as Britain to come battle the Judeans. It was the largest provincial rebellion in any of Roman history at that time. Yes, Marilyn? Let me see. I'd have to look that up to know the exact number. But we're talking in the number of thousands. Is it 20,000? Yeah, I mean, it's a very mean total. Pardon? Yeah. Yeah, I don't want to give you a wrong figure, but I mean, it was a massive number. Rome came down with the biggest foot stomping of any suppression that they ever came down with, and they obliterated Jerusalem.

Initially Vespasian was the starting general and Titus was the finishing general. So it started with one and ended with another. This was the time that Josephus began with the Jews and then switched sides when he saw that this was not going to come off well. The Jews had another rebellion they initiated just a few years later.

6,000 in a legion. Yeah, so we're talking tens of thousands of Roman soldiers stomping around that countryside, looking for the Jews in caves, wiping them out in huge numbers, massive crucifixions. Tom? Isn't it interesting that Jesus did two apostles? Yeah, yeah legions of angels yeah Peter you know Peter by the time he had written second Peter this rebellion had likely just begun but the Roman full Roman response had not been initiated and But Peter was already taken home by the time that had come to pass.

Let's take a minute here before we go to this. Yes. what we have to what we have to work from this tradition so we don't have biblical account uh... what we have from tradition is that he was crucified upside down in rome probably s you know somewhere between sixty six and sixty eight uh... eighty it would have been around the beginning at latest in the middle of this rebellion judah and so you know what one of the things that happened is is it if people weren't wiped out in the uh... rebellion you know, in Judah directly, that the retribution against Jews in various places got to be pretty severe. And so, you know, exactly what the circumstances were may be somewhat subject to question. But anyway, the tradition that we have says it was in Rome, 66 to 68 AD, hung upside down as he was crucified.

Let's take a look here. This is a map that we've shown the last couple of weeks and was included in your first week's handout. The areas on the northern Pontus, Bithynia, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Asia are some of those listed in the very beginning part of Peter's letter. And remember last week we looked at Cappadocia. Those of you who may have missed that, Cappadocia is full of a great number of houses, even underground cities, all carved into rock. That's why we looked at that last week. As many as 20,000 people in one underground city. As many as 18 stories deep.

Today I would like us to take a look at Asia. This is another place that he lists. Interestingly, Asia is one area that has the greatest duration of consistent and persistent apostolic input during the New Testament era. It was only first reached, so far as we know, during Paul's second visit. But from then on, lots of input. Let's take a look here.

The seven cities of Asia that are recorded in Revelation. Yeah, question. You want me to flip off the light? Ah, yes, thank you. No, I'll go ahead and catch that. Thanks for the reminder. OK, easier to see. Here are the seven cities of Asia, plus Patmos, where John wrote from for the Book of Revelation.

Here is the theater at Ephesus. This is the theater where Acts 19 records. A whole bunch of people were let into the theater by one of the silversmiths, and for two hours they shouted, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. The Temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

This is a traditional, and I call it traditional because it's a later tradition, reliability is again in question. Remember how John and Mary, Jesus had them in front of him at the cross, and John was told, you know, behold your mother, and Mary was told, behold your son. The idea being that John took Mary to Ephesus, We don't know that for sure. The last place she's mentioned by name is Acts chapter 1. And after that, the closest mention of her is in Galatians at the right time, born of a woman, not even quite named.

Yes? We were in Ephesus. Yeah. We had a monk who died. Yes. And he did mention that there was a place there It's one of those things where you've got some traditions in place and the question is how reliable are they. Various traditions have different degrees of reliability. Here's just a shot down the main street. Think of what this was like. This was undoubtedly one of the streets that Paul walked and others. that we find record in the New Testament? Yeah, Tom?

There's a possible faint echo that Mary did make an emphasis for in that area, because one of John's later epistles, it said, to the elect lady and her president. Yeah, I would say that is a possibility, because the elect lady thing, who does that mean? Because we don't have anywhere else that that's spelled out.

But it also points out that she was capable of growing Here is the Agora, the marketplace, which is likely where Demetrius and the other silversmiths gathered. By the way, this Agora had a fake tree of life in it. How about that? And the reason I bring that up is Revelation says to he who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, the real one. But this had a fake tree of life in the middle of it. So you go get there and watch a phony.

Here's the remains of the city hall where the town clerk would have worked. This is the one that spoke and settled down the gathering at the theater after two hours of screaming. He didn't want anything to get riled up because there was a Roman governor and about 3,000 Roman soldiers there. Here's a rendering of the Temple of Artemis. This is where they had over a hundred columns, well over a hundred columns.

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was both a religious shrine as well as a safety deposit box place. And, weirdly enough, it was also a free base for thieves. If you were a thief, you could get within a bow shot of this temple. I'm not sure they had a defined distance, what that was, probably even marked out. You could be free of the accusation of thievery, even if they would have caught you red-handed. Here's what it looks like now.

Not so impressive. Okay? Oh, I think there's a few things. One is, you know, there's no earthquake. resistance and any of these things. They just built them as well as they could. I'll show a picture later. The whole area of Turkey, if you look at a seismic map, a map of earthquake faults, boy it's just sliced and diced. It's really chopped up.

This had roof and columns. See the roof and columns? Whereas the theater, there's no columns to deal with. You've got everything sitting on the ground and so it's in a lot better shape. This with the roof and columns, just a few earthquakes and you start losing it.

Here's Smyrna, a port city to the north. A really beautiful city. They also at Smyrna had An inland port that actually had kind of, at nighttime, they'd have a bunch of lights around the waterway, so it has this real picturesque, you know, lights dancing in the waves and all that. And a chain that they put across at nighttime, so there was kind of a safety factor there to keep pirates out and things of that sort. Here's another shot in Smyrna, and you can imagine this with people walking down there And, you know, various plants growing on the arches and things of that sort, what that would have been like. And it is amazing that that's still fairly well preserved. It means that the guys who designed it did a good job. This one here, Pergamum. And so here's a temple. I think this is a Schlepios, which is the god of healing. This is Thyatira.

This, believe it or not, is about all that's left. This is, Thadara was known for its wealth, and yet that's about all that's left. The rest of the city has all been built over, fallen down. Sardis, Sardis was the one where they had the repeated message, wake up. And this is the bathhouse that was also associated right next to it, to the bathhouse, a very large and fancy Jewish synagogue. Here's Philadelphia. And there's a modern city alongside now. And so bits and pieces of it still visible.

Pardon? I don't know the name offhand, but I'll look. I don't know the name offhand. Okay, I'll show a map at the end and we'll see. It has some of the rivers marked, but I don't know if it has a mountain range marked off. I'll have to take a look at that, look that up. Here's Laodicea. This is the theater. You notice the one at Ephesus is fairly well excavated.

Laodicea is not as well excavated. In Colossae, the Turkish government has not allowed them to excavate it at all. It's still sitting there basically untouched because they won't give permits for the excavation. The only people who are interested in that are Christians, so anyway.

Here's the Lycus Valley. Up here you have Heropolis. Here is Colossae, where the letter to the Colossians is written, and there's Laodicea over here. Deniso is a modern city. Here is looking across the valley toward Laodicea and Heropolis. Here's the site of Colossae. This is the tell of Colossae, and again, The last I read, and this was a couple of years ago, there was a university in Australia that was wanting to excavate it.

The Turkish government wouldn't give them permits. Here's the theater. Unlike the one at Ephesus, it's all cleaned up. This one's all covered with thistles. I wouldn't suggest you have a seat. Here's the cool stream. Think of this. Here's Colossae. It has a nice, cool stream coming out of the mountains. melt coming off the mountains. Nice, cool, clean, pure stream.

About 50,000 people lived there. Here's Hierapolis, where Pamukkake is the modern name. This is all the mineral deposits from what is still a kind of mineral bath resort kind of town. There was about a six-mile underground water pipe that carried over that distance. Real interesting. Here is a section of that water pipe that's been found and brought up so you can see where it is.

And remember, Laodicea received its water from Herapolis, so the water was only lukewarm. Remember, it was hot at Herapolis. Lukewarm by the time it got to Laodicea. So, in Revelation 3, 15 and 16, Christ says, I know your deeds, that you're neither hot or cold. It's cold or hot. I wish that we were cold or hot, so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." So, fit right into it, and so here's Laodicea, doesn't have the cold water of Colossae, doesn't have the hot water of Hierapolis, instead the lukewarm water that they got by piping it across the valley there.

Now, one of the other things we're going to take a look at here, here's John 1, Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. We noted last week that Peter had a home later on in Capernaum. What this tells me is that this was their hometown. Andrew and Peter were brothers. Philip was there, so guess what?

We're talking growing up buds. Philip, tradition tells us, was instrumental in the salvation of the wife of a Roman proconsul there at Heropolis. The Roman proconsul found out that his wife had become a believer and blamed Philip. So Philip gets nailed for this conversion and tradition has it he also was crucified upside down. So here would have been Peter's growing up buddy, his boyhood friend. And apparently from tradition, again, we have to put a little question mark there because of a reliability issue. Scripture is reliable. The traditions are not quite so. Maybe that Philip and Peter died the same way.

Peter may have known that Philip was in this area when he wrote the letter. So here would have been the area of Asia that had influence from Paul. Paul also sent Timothy to Ephesus, right? He wrote a letter to the Church of Colossae. Philip involved right across the valley from Colossae, and you had John involved with the churches of these seven cities here, and so you had a time Basically, they extended from the 50s A.D. into the 90s A.D. At least three apostles involved in that area, plus the appointment of Timothy, plus others we could name. So an enduring apostolic influence.

Here's more shots of Hierapolis, the theater. Demetian Gate, which wouldn't have been built until John's time later. Demetian didn't become an emperor, so this wouldn't have been there during the time of Peter. And then the Mineral Baths. Here, in partial response, there are some of the rivers that are marked. You can see this area is mountainous up in here, and the rivers are marked. I'll have to look for something with the mountain ranges. Yeah, it shows the mountains. You can see them there.

And I've got another map I'll show later with the earthquake faults because the whole area is run crazy with it. Let me back up just a little bit if I can. This may not let me. I guess I can't. You see this area here? One of the Greek Greek-speaking and Greek-writing authors said that this area is eusistos, good for earthquakes. Yes, Tom? Back to that map. A little tricky. Here, let me go this way. Yes?

If you knew what the elevation of those contours were, maybe you could figure out at least how high those mountains were. Oh, yeah, that's something I'll take a look at and see if I can get some information. It is a fairly mountainous area, and especially on the north end.

And I will take a closer look at that because there's other areas. I want to move from one area to the next so we get familiarity with the area that Peter is writing to. All right, now, let me get through here because I want to look at one other thing. There's something else about these areas.

Aside from the seven cities, remember Troas? Troas was the place where Eutychus fell from the window. and fell asleep, fell from the window, and then Paul went out and saw his life was still in him, and he got up. That was the place there. And down near Miletus was the last place that Paul met the elders from Ephesus, Acts chapter 20. It's the longest recorded dissertation to Christians, speaking to Christians in the book of Acts. recorded there in Miletus where Paul is seeing for the last time these elders from Ephesus. Lots of continuing involvement. Acts says that all of Asia heard the gospel. So this whole area heard the gospel.

Some kind of archaeological assessment, about 500 towns and cities in that area. Ephesus would have been kind of the capital. Yeah, Marilyn? Well, actually, that's another thing that I'll show, but not this week, and that is that there was a pretty good network of Roman roads that went through that area. Yes, even through the mountains.

A very good network of Roman roads, including one that goes right through here, just north of here, and so there's a lot of Roman Roads that were built into this area, and you'll see how that works out anyway Call it good for now all right lights back on let's get to our handout All right first Peter 1 6 through 9 and Everybody got the handout there. Yeah, okay, good deal All right first Peter 1 6 through 9. We've looked at first 5 verses last week and I wanted to give insight into the way that Peter wrote.

Peter had a habit of writing that has caused translators and Greek scholars to kind of scratch their heads a little bit. Where Paul would most often use an imperative about the way that Christians should be living. Paul, for example, at Ephesus, we brought that up, he wrote to the church at Ephesus and said, stop stealing. He wrote to the husbands in the church at Ephesus, you must love your wives, imperative. Peter, not exclusively, so don't misunderstand me, Peter had a tendency, he leaned towards writing things in action rather than using imperatives. Isn't that interesting? He would write about things happening. being in action, being in progress as opposed to using imperatives as much. Is that interesting?

What seems to be the point is this. You know how James would write and James talks about the reality of this is a faith lived out. James would write about that. It seems that Peter would hold the same perspective and be focused on the reality but not so much trying to hit you over the head as hard as James does.

Instead, to underscore it with verbs in action. Very frequently where people are expecting and translators even come across with what sounds like an imperative What they encounter instead is a participle. In other words, it's an I-N-G. Going, loving, verbs in action.

It's a very interesting way about how Peter writes. You're going to see that here this morning. I have some examples a little farther on. 1 Peter 1. Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. Nancy makes the point it is almost as if he is assuming that this is what's going on. Yeah, good way. Tom? Peter is kind of looking at these believers being farther along. I think that's a good point. There's another perspective I think that plays into this. And that's that Paul is breaking new ground, especially with the Gentiles.

Remember, in the Gentile mind, there is no automatic connection in the Gentile mind between religion and morality. People in the Gentile pagan religions would have no connection between their pagan religious belief and how they live morally. people would even pray to lie better, to steal better, and to cheat better to the pagan gods. They had a morality but it was not based on, you know, here's a moral God. That's a Christian perspective, that there's a moral God. They had a sense of morality that was more of a social kind of interaction. There was a relationship to the gods, but it was not based on the gods themselves being moral or implicitly looking upon the humans as being moral as a result of that.

There wasn't an automatic connection. What Paul had to do was to then give them, look, here's your position and here's why there's a connection from your position in Christ. And he would write, The God, not one of them, but The God. And then he would say, and here is the consequence in how you live, which to them was just a brand new thought. Isn't that amazing? It was like, wow! It was a totally fresh idea that believing in The God, The God of Scripture, would have an impact on how you live from one day to the next, because of the moral character of the God. The God. So that was fresh. That was a fresh thought.

Here's 1 Peter 1.13, therefore prepare, and this is a participle, preparing. It's not an imperative. Isn't that interesting? Therefore preparing your minds for action.

It says in the translation, keep sober. That sounds like what? Sounds like an imperative, right? No, it's a participle. Keeping sober. In spirit. Fix your hope. Now he uses an imperative. So it would come across this way. Preparing your minds for action. Keeping sober in spirit. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. See that? So there was an action. It may have to do with your particular medical state. Feel free to open a window if you feel like you need some fresh air. It can get a little stuffy, especially when they close the door, so it can get a little stuffy.

1 Peter 2.18, servants, and again, what does the English look like here?

Be submissive? Is it an imperative? No. It's a participle, being submissive to your masters with all respect, not only those who are good and gentle, but also those who are unreasonable. Isn't that interesting? How about the next one 1st Peter 5 1 through 3 Therefore I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ and a partaker also the glory to be revealed Shepherd and that's an imperative the flock of God among you exercising oversight. Okay, there he goes with the participles again not under compulsion but voluntarily according to the will of God not for sordid gain but with eagerness and nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock." He didn't say, be an example, right?

He said instead, in action, in progress, as it's happening. Peter is very much a person of action, and I think that's one of the reasons why you would see him writing this way. You look back on the Gospels, was he a guy that was prone to action? Oh, yeah, you know it was it was the act first think later. You know in the Gospels. Yes, Tom Yeah, yeah, he's just at it Peter is very much a person of action So he writes that way he writes with the actions as being principle The command form is secondary the action is what makes sense to him, right? or personality more than anything.

Yeah, and I think that's important to look at. What we're seeing, this is inspired writing, inspired by the Holy Spirit, but it does not bleach out Peter's personality. You've got a good point. It does not bleach out Peter's personality at all. Here's Peter writing, not just, I'm going to write all the way the way all the other apostles write, and we all write the same way, and we all talk the same talk. No, what he's doing is he's writing, and the truth, the content is still there. The content is still there, and yet what's happening, as you pointed out, Marilyn, what is coming through is Peter's mindset. Peter's personality that was there from the very beginning is coming through.

But what's happening instead of this impetuous, impulsive mindset, he's saying, the life of Christ being lived out in action. That's what he focuses on. Isn't that interesting? that the Lord has mellowed this man over time to recognize it's not my impulsive, impetuous movement that's going to make the day. Instead, this is the way the life of Christ gets lived out in the believer. This is the action that the believer takes.

Instead of focusing on the imperative, he looks at the action and places the focus on there. Using imperatives occasionally, he doesn't eliminate them. but leaning much more towards describing the action rather than telling them, telling you, you must do this, you must do that.

Okay, 1 Peter 1, 6-7. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials. By the way, various trials? What's the tense on that? Yeah, it's already done happen. Okay, so he's not writing to people just warning them. It's going to happen It's already taking place and this is just the first letter So that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ Isn't it interesting? In this refers to the kind of a summary of verses 3 through 5. In the things I've written to you about in verses 3 through 5. So what do they do? In this you grumble greatly. In this you grouse and complain. Just to prove you're human beings. No? What do you do? What does he say? Rejoice. Isn't that something?

Now the present tense of an indicative has the idea right now continuing to rejoice and you are right now continuing to rejoice greatly that's his thought and interesting he adds greatly so he intensifies it Peter is not a mild author he likes to use intense words and he does so he also uses though several times in the passage but why would he use though several times in this passage what's the though for? This is for the long haul. OK, Tom says this is for the long haul. That's true. What's his sense? Why do you use them?

Because this is a new way of life. OK. All right. A new way of life. It certainly is different, isn't it? Because it's radically different from the rest of the world. Good. Why else would he use them? Because it's cognitively obedient. Ah, okay. In other words, part of what's happening is, if you think of it, they came from an earthly mindset. If they're Gentiles, their thoughts are earthly. If in Judaism, even though it is a faith-based religion, it's still looking at my actions here are what count, my blessings here are what count.

What he's talking about here is putting this word, though, in as a word of contrast. And it keeps coming back to it. There's a word of contrast. So let's take a look at why that's there, because it's a rather significant word in the passage. He's going to turn to the subject of trials and suffering. We're going to see this subject revisited substantially towards the end of the book.

He is not forgetting it, even though he doesn't mention it, he does not forget it in the rest of it because he keeps addressing the issues that will come up. One of the things he does, he says, a little while about our time here. Isn't that interesting? Just a little while. What does that make you think of? A little while, you hear that? What's that? Yeah, our time here is short. Yeah, yeah.

I sat down with my grandpa a few weeks before he went home to be with the Lord and by that time his hearing was almost gone and his eyesight was pretty close to gone. I went in and visited him there because I was living in a different area. I brought him my guitar. It's funny, I did that with my brother too about a week before he went home to be with the Lord. And we sat down together and... Yeah. Play the guitar, that's the end, you know. Yeah. So... Yeah. All over. Keep the guitar at home.

So he was at a care home there. We went into the lobby and we sang together. He knew quite a number of songs by heart, which is good because we didn't have anything particularly... So I just would play different things that I knew that he knew and we would sing together in the lobby. It made me think because at his wife's, my grandmother's memorial service, he sang a song. We just held his 90th birthday party a week or so earlier. He sang, wait a little while and we'll sing the new song. A little while. It was seven years later.

So, a little while, he's going to use that phrase again in chapter 5, referring to trials also. How about that? First chapter, fifth chapter, last chapter, he's going to say a little while and trials. So that's an idea that he pairs up at the beginning and at the end of the book. A little while, trials.

And something to keep in mind is What does a little while tell you? Why could he possibly say that? These people may be going through these trials for years and decades. Why could he say a little while? In view of eternity, it's a little while. In God's time. Just like my grandfather saying, wait a little while and we'll sing a new song. And it won't be sung for just a little while.

It's in view of eternity that he could even say that. Otherwise, it's a completely unreasonable thing to say, isn't it? Completely unreasonable, except in view of eternity. Peter portrays it as exceedingly valuable to view trials and suffering in view of the span of eternity. The trials, parasmos, are various.

Poikilos, that is the root for our word polka, in polka dots. What's the idea of a polka dot? You have varying kind of small little scattered around. Patchwork. Yeah, patchwork. It's sort of here and there, hit and miss, different kind. That idea is what's brought across here. Various trials. Those are, by the way, the exact same words that James talks about in James 1-2. I'll use the translation that my brother came up with when he was translating James 1-2.

You must esteem it ultimate joy when you encounter various trials. You must because it's an imperative. You must esteem it and think of this ultimate joy. What do you think of when you think of ultimate joy? You think of some event where everybody is really happy, maybe it's a wedding, having a baby, something like that. No, it's just the trials. That's the ultimate joy. Huh? Wait a minute. Where did I sign up for this? House having an ultimate joy. Yeah, Marilyn?

Is it necessary? Yeah. Really, probably the way to look at that is as needed. The if necessary thing doesn't mean that a person, it's not intended to mean that a person would escape it. It is if necessary and it's assumed that it is. If necessary and it's assumed that it is. So it's more the idea of as needed. is kind of the thought, not the idea that it might be a question of whether you would need it or not. Yeah, Brad? Would that, if necessary, imply that we don't need to go running after the trouble if it's on this project? Ah, okay. This is a very good question and one we're going to encounter again.

What should be our attitude towards the trials? Okay, trial, let's think of the options. Trial option one. Option one is Here's a trial. I'm going to get out of this thing any way I can. Option two. Oh boy, a trial. Here it is. Option three. Let me find them. Now, which of those three do you think the Lord has in mind? Dumb and dumber. If you look at it, the first one is not what the Lord has in mind. We will see here about going through the trial. Secondly, as you look at this, it's also not a matter of hunting them down. The Lord writes the prescription in our lives. Our persevering through the trial is the Lord's design. I'm going to get out of this thing any way I can. The third one, I'm going to hunt them down and really make sure I have them. Would you please trial me? I'd love it if you would. Give me a trial.

Really misguided prayers, right? Well, that's an interesting thing. Is there a scripture that tells us to ask for them? No. What's interesting is Paul writes to, I believe it's the church of Thessalonica, and talks about being appointed to them. And that's an interesting thing.

In other words, God's the one who makes the schedule. God is the one who makes the schedule, who writes the prescription. It's not our place to sidestep them automatically, neither is it our place to go hunt them down. Well, don't worry about that. When we make the correlation that the appointment of the trial, it's not certainly that God wants us to have that time. but that those trials are in part good works that he's preparing us to walk in because those trials are for our approval and also as other believers and unbelievers observe us walking in faith in them through those trials. That's a good work. That's him being revealed in glory. Isn't that something?

Yeah, this is Ephesians 2.10. Prepare good work so we might walk in them, including those that are right in the middle of the trial. Has he prepared the trials too? Yeah. As needed. As needed.

You wouldn't pray for those things. You never want them. I mean, you could pray for death because you might have to, you know, an awful lot like that. But didn't he turn around and react to death as well? If we sidestep the trial, we sidestep the spiritual opportunity. Another thing to point out here, James uses a lot of the same words. Peter will use hupomeno in chapter 2.

It means to remain under. And the idea that we brought forward, Peter uses the idea of remaining under and making reference to your faith. Remaining under, continuing to believe, continuing to put our trust in the Lord in the midst of that. And James uses the word persevere. It is not just that you are going through the trial that is the point. It is that you remain under in the trial, persevering, walking in fellowship with the Lord, trusting the Lord through it. That is the focal point. James uses the word persevere. Peter makes reference here to your faith. The point in both cases is a remaining in the trial in trust in the Lord.

Going through the trial, continuing to trust the Lord and put confidence in Him. Now, something else to look at here in these verses, how highly is that faithfulness and perseverance under trial valued? Peter puts it as more precious than gold which is perishable, that is highly precious but imperishable.

How about that? Have you ever been in a circumstance where you might see it on something like an antique road show? What's the value of this? Sometimes I remember in a business circumstance getting a person to come from the outside and give a professional valuation of a business.

Peter gives an apostle's valuation. The faith in the midst of those trials, your faith in the Lord, is more precious than gold, which is perishable. And the faith is imperishable. Remaining faith to and in fellowship with the Lord through the trial rewards us when we see Him face to face with praise and glory and honor.

That will be the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose. Why? To declare and reveal His glory and to share His glory. Isn't it amazing that what the Lord rewards is His life in us? It's not the good stuff we do that will come, but it's His life in us. And He sees that in us, and as we depend on Him, that's rewardable. Good stuff. The Lord says, I see in you a mirrored reflection of my life. That's a good thing. I'll reward you for that. And that reward won't be some miserly horde in some heavenly mansion. It will be a capacity to glorify Him. Alright, last page.

1 Peter 1.189.

And though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not see Him, now but believe in him you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls here's verses 8 and 9 interesting he repeats some of the ideas here's the though here's the contrast you got this and yet there's this other thing contrasting greatly rejoice glory by the way that glory would point out this because he's going to come back to this word glory better than a dozen times in these two books is the radiant essence of who God is. Revelation 22 is a very good illustration of that.

And then finally, your faith returns to that again. Not the content of the faith, but the reliance upon the Lord. Sometimes we'll see in scripture in numerous places, the faith, which refers to the content. This is your faith, the reliance that you have upon the Lord. The other thing is verse 8 makes multiple references to him. Is Peter trying to be secretive here? No. He's being redundant on purpose. What's the focus?

Him. What matters in the end? Him. What's going to last forever? Him. What's of real value? Your relationship with Him. Your fellowship with Him. He keeps zooming in on that. The other thing, and it's connected to your faith, is Peter could say, I saw the Lord, I walked with Him, and I was there when He was resurrected. But you believe on the basis of faith alone. So instead of seeing Him, he's seeing Him. He's seeing Him, yes. Notice that the way he describes the joy and the rejoicing up there is over the top.

It's not wimpy joy. Yeah, are you happy? Yeah, I guess so. It's not wimpy joy. It's not wimpy. Nothing brief and abbreviated and slim about this joy. And beyond that, the glory is marginal? No. Full. The glory is full. God is the source. It's God's God's radiance of who He is. That's His glory. The essential radiance, the radiant essence of who He is. Verse 9, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

This shouldn't be looked at as, if you do all this stuff, then you're going to get it. But it's looked at, remember the way Peter writes? He thinks of things in action. He says, Of course you're going to be full of great rejoicing. Of course you're going to be faithful in the trials. And it goes right alongside, because these are all things in action. You will be glorying in this, and you'll be rejoicing in this, because of course you're going to be looking forward to the ultimate salvation when you see the Lord face to face.

And Peter can say, and I'll see Him again. We have the privilege of beholding the Lord through his word. Peter's experience will be unique. He'll be able to say, I'll see him again. I'll see him again. But think of this, Peter is underscoring not his having seen the Lord. He'll do that in a few places, we'll see.

But more so, their trust in the Lord, their faith in the Lord. that that's even more valuable. Because remember, there were people that saw the Lord and didn't even believe. They'd see the Lord conduct a miracle right before their very eyes, and the only thing they did was figure out what law he broke. He'd conduct a miracle and they'd figure out who's to blame. Instead, That's how they were trained. Yeah, that's right. That's exactly right, Carol. That's how they were trained.

Peter is saying, look, on the basis of faith and faith alone, look at the rejoicing. You're a people of though. Though this is happening, though this is going on, you're a people of though. This contrast is what's taking place. And the only reason it makes any sense is because of what the Lord has done, who he is, and your faith in him.

It will make an eternal difference. Just remain faithful for a little while. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, what potent powerful words from a man who was mellowed marvelously during the decades that you put him in the position of being an apostle. What wonderful lessons you taught him and he's conveyed and carried along to us here. We thank you for that, Lord. What richness is there and what richness we have in you. What wealth of grace and glory. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.