By Rev. Dr. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist
May 19, 2024 – 1 Peter 1:1-9
We are starting a new sermon series this morning. I have titled it “A Summer Tour through 1 Peter.” We are going to be camping in the book of 1st Peter from now to the end of August. There are a couple of reasons why I want to do this. The first is that I think it will be helpful for your spiritual lives. Peter was writing to first-century Christians about living in an uncertain world. Much of what he is saying to them can be applied directly to us. He wrote to encourage them and to let them know what they are experiencing is not outside of God’s plan. In this book, he gives them a lot of practical directions on how to live.
I believe that these directions are important for our time as well. Lastly, I know that summer in Ontario means that many of you will miss a number of Sundays because of being away. We will also have people drop into our church because they are in the area. In some ways, we will be dropping into this book because I am only able to hit some of the highlights in a summer’s worth of Sundays.
So, let’s dive in.
1 Peter 1:1–2 (NLT)
This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 2 God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
May God give you more and more grace and peace.
This letter was written by Peter with the help of Silas. If you have read through the book of Acts, you will know that Silas accompanied Paul on some of his missionary adventures.
1 Peter 5:12 (NLT)
12 I have written and sent this short letter to you with the help of Silas, whom I commend to you as a faithful brother. My purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that what you are experiencing is truly part of God’s grace for you. Stand firm in this grace.
As you read through this book, you may wonder how Peter the fisherman could be such an articulate writer. It was because Silas helped him.
He was writing to God’s chosen people – people who had received Jesus into their lives and experienced his grace– both Jews and Gentiles. These people were scattered across a number of Roman provinces. Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. If you were to compare this to a modern-day map, you would find that all these provinces now reside in the country of Turkey.
You can see at the bottom right-hand side of the map where Jerusalem is. So, these Christians are a long piece from the then center of Christianity- Jerusalem. They are living in countries heavily influenced by Rome. These Christians are scattered. Some of them have strong churches like Ephesus and Laodicea. But many of them don’t get that much fellowship.
There are no books, podcasts, television or radio shows. They can’t dial up the best worship bands or speakers. They probably have a small church around them. From time to time they would get a letter from Paul or Peter. Sometimes, special speakers will make the rounds – but with them, they have to discern whether they are truly followers of Jesus.
They don’t have many of the props that we have to shore up our faith. But they have the Lord. They have experienced his salvation. It is always hard to hear the tone when things are written, but you can hear the excitement in Peter’s voice. Writing to Christians, he says,
1 Peter 1:3–6b (NIV)
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice.
You can hear the excitement about our salvation. You can hear Peter break out in worship. He is worshiping God for his great mercy. God did not need to save us, but he did. He did not need to deal with our sin, but he did.
Peter goes on to say, God has given us new birth. He is echoing Jesus’ words about being born again. We have been reborn spiritually. We are new creations in Christ. We are spiritually alive.
We were born into a living hope. The NLT says we live with great expectations. But I don’t think that captures all of what Peter is trying to say. Our hope is not some static thing, but it is placed in the one who said I am life. Our hope is alive because our relationship with Jesus is alive.
We have this hope, Peter says, because or the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Because Jesus lives, we are given new life. We are born again. We are giving a living hope. A hope that is in Jesus. Here is what else we are given. We are given an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you.
Many people talk about heaven as our inheritance. Peter talks about what is in heaven as our inheritance. He echoes Jesus’ words – store up for yourself treasure in heaven. Peter says this treasure does not perish, spoil or fade. It is not like the stock market, where sometimes it goes up, and sometimes it goes down. Your investment in heaven is solid.
He goes on to say that you are shielded by God’s power. God is at work on your behalf. God is involved in your salvation.
You can hear the wonder in Peter’s voice about our salvation. So he says in verse 6. In this, you greatly rejoice. But he goes on to say,
1 Peter 1:6 (NIV)
6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
Wait a second. I am excited about our salvation. I am excited about what has been done. My heart has broken out in worship. I have this living hope. I am looking forward to all of what heaven is.
But now I am suffering grief in all kinds of trials. That word “grief” could also be translated as “sorrow.” There are all kinds of things in our world that bring us sorrow.
Peter is not specific about the sorrows we face. Some of them come from living life. He was writing to be people in the Roman empire, 30% of whom were slaves. That is a sorrowful life. Talk about all kinds of trials. There are the sorrows that come to all of us. Sickness and death of loved ones, dealing with our own physical infirmities, dealing with people who are hard to deal with.
Many of the people Peter was writing to were in danger of being persecuted for their faith. There were a few Roman emperors around that time that were hostile to the Christian faith.
So, Peter says, “For a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”
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I am thankful for this passage of scripture, and here is why. Sunday after Sunday, we gather here at Asbury, and we sing wonderful songs of worship: Bless the Lord oh my soul – 10000 reasons, Great are you Lord, Wonderful merciful saviour. We celebrate our wonderful salvation. We celebrate on Sunday because that is the day when Jesus was raised from the dead.
But as we celebrate, I am very aware that “we suffer grief in all kinds of trials” describes us well. Some of you are being treated for cancer. Some of you are wondering if you should be treated for cancer. Some of you are supporting someone you love through this difficult journey.
Some have kids who have made or are making choices that cause sorrow. Some of you are grieving the loss of someone you loved. Some of you have experienced multiple deaths of people who were significant to you in the last year.
Some of you are finding life hard. Your body is growing old, so it hurts when you stand, and it hurts when you sit. You are feeling your age.
Some of you are dealing with anxiety or depression or other things that just make life hard. Some of you are feeling financial pressure. Some of you are stuck in a relationship that is trying. Some of you are lonely and hurting. Some of you are finding life confusing. I have just touched the surface of some of your challenges.
But Sunday after Sunday, we sing of our great salvation and our wonderful God, and yet many of us who are singing can be described as having suffered grief in all kinds of trials. I feel the tension in that. Maybe you do too. But our passage acknowledges this reality.
As followers of Jesus, we have experienced salvation, we are born into a living hope, and life can be difficult all at the same time. It is good for you to revel in God and what he has done while at the same time recognizing that sometime life is hard.
“God is good” and “life is hard” are not contradictory statements. They are statements of reality. Part of following Jesus is being able to hold those things together. In fact, one of the indicators of spiritual maturity is to be able to know that God is good even when life isn’t.
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Back to our passage.
1 Peter 1:6b–7 (NIV)
now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
There is usually more than one reason we go through times of sorrow. I don’t have time to talk about why they happen. Did God cause it? Did God allow it? Is it a result of living in in a broken world? I don’t know how fruitful that line of questioning is. What is fruitful is asking the question – what does God want to do with me and in me through my suffering. The Bible gives a number of answers to that question.
Paul says,
Romans 5:3–5 (NIV)
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
But here in first Peter, Peter emphasizes what trials do to our faith. It proves the genuineness of it.
1 Peter 1:7 (NIV)
7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
The Greek word for “genuine” carries with it the idea of being battle-tested.
Some of you need to hear this with what you are going through. The trial you are going through is not testing your salvation. You have been saved by grace. It is not testing your God’s mercy or his love for you. It is testing your faith.
Suffering and trials test our faith in a number of ways. It depends on where you are in your spiritual journey as to how your faith is tested. If you are new to faith and you hit trials – your faith is tested in terms of “Am I going to continue to walk with Jesus.”
You remember the parable that Jesus told about the Sower and the seed. A sower sowed some seed and some fell on rocky ground. When Jesus interpreted his parable, he said,
Luke 8:13 (NIV)
13 Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.
Their faith wasn’t deep enough to keep moving forward with Jesus. When people come to Jesus, they will eventually get to a place where they have to make a choice that says – I believe Jesus’ way is the best way in spite of the problems they face. I am going to choose to follow him.
If you make that choice and go a little further in life and you face grief and all kinds of trials there will be another kind of testing of your faith. You have settled the question, am I going to stick with Jesus – but you will be faced with another test of faith. The question you will have to come to terms with is “What is my faith in?”
When you are faced with a health crisis, you will be forced to ask the question – will I trust God with my health. Of course, you go to doctors. Of course, you have healing prayer. But in the end, will I trust God no matter what the doctors say? Will I trust God even when I don’t get the answer to prayer that I want?
When you are in pain, what will you put your faith in. Here is what happens. Pain shows us the idols of our life. When I am in pain, where do I look for comfort? I have experienced my fair share of soul pain – of heart pain. I didn’t always run to Jesus. I ran for comfort. I ran to distractions. I ran to adrenaline rushes. But when the distractions end and adrenaline dies down – the pain is still there. I had to learn to run to Jesus. I have found him to be so gracious and so kind. He taught my heart to do more than just survive in the middle of grief.
I am sometimes still surprised by my heart. I find that life’s challenges still have a way of making me ask the question – “What is my faith in.”
In our spiritual journey, we will come to a place where we have to face death. I have walked with many people, and I have found that if they haven’t learned the lesson of grace, then their faith will be tested again.
I have walked with a lot of people near the end. There are some, even dear saints of the church, who get stuck in the; “I could have, I should have, I wish I would have.” We could all have made better choices. But God’s grace, God’s undeserved favour, meets us right where we are at and says – It is not what you have done, but it is what I have done for you. Will you fully trust that?
1 Peter 1:7–9 (NIV)
7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Peter sums up their faith. He says, you haven’t seen Jesus, but you love him. You weren’t there when he walk in this world like I was – but in spite of that – you still love him. That is faith.
And even now – you do not see him. He hasn’t appeared to you. Yet you believe in him. You have put your faith in him. You believe that he is the son of God. You believe that he died and rose again. You believe that he has taken your sin and given you his righteousness and goodness so that you can have a relationship with God.
This is the good news, the gospel and because you believe in him your are filled with joy. Joy as you know is this deep sense of well-being. They are still walking through their trials. They are still being battle tested. But deep down they are experiencing this sense of glorious joy.
Why?
For you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Your faith is genuine. It has been battle-tested. Look what you are getting. You are receiving – note that it is ongoing right now. You are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
You were saved when you gave your heart, your life to Jesus. But as your faith is refined you are being saved. There will come a time when we get to heaven and we will be finally saved.
I know some of you are challenged and you wonder if some strange thing has happened to you by the battles you are facing. You come to church, and we sing about the goodness of God, yet you walk through difficult waters.
Know that one of the purposes of this is that your faith is being refined. It is causing you to work through the questions of life and to lean on Jesus. Its genuineness is shining through. You are being saved. The dross is falling away. You are learning to fully lean on Jesus and that is a good place to be.
For in the middle of testing, joy is possible. Your soul is being saved – and that’s a good thing.
Some of you here are tempted to lose heart. I want you to know that your brothers and sisters in the past have walked through some challenging times, too. They have found that God’s way is the best way. Trust God in the middle of trouble.
Some of you are going through a lot of stuff. Know that God doesn’t want to waste your pain. He wants to use it so that your faith will be strong. He is making you into the kind of person you were meant to be. You were built for more than just surviving. You were built for joy.
So, when you experience all kinds of trials – know this – You are not alone. God sees you. He is getting you ready for something better than you have right now.