An Unbelievably Glorious Journey Home
Preached by Jason Abbott
September 27, 2015
Today, we’ll begin our series through the New Testament book of 1st Peter. It was originally a letter written to churches in Asia Minor, or modern-day Turkey, in order to help believers face the inevitable trials and hardships that awaited them as they lived for Christ in this fallen, hostile world.The letter was written by the apostle Peter, which I think is really beautiful. Why is it so beautiful? Because it speaks of the transforming power of the gospel! This letter parades a transformed Peter before us!
The same Peter who’d once rebuked Jesus telling him he would never go to the cross and die now writes that Jesus had to go to that cross and die in order to save us. (He has a transformed idea of gospel suffering!)
The same Peter who once ran away at the prospect of being persecuted for his faith in Jesus now suffers willingly and joyfully for that very faith while teaching other believers to do the same. (He has new commitment to sacrificial, Christ-like mission!)
The same Peter who once kept Gentiles at a distance because they were not God’s chosen people now writes to churches of Gentile Christians and calls them God the Father’s chosen people. (He has a changed view of God-ordained mission and diversity!)
Friends, Benjamin and I pray that, by studying this letter which Peter wrote to believers facing hostility, we might be beautifully transformed even as he was. We long to see this community grow in understanding of and willingness to suffer for the gospel. We hope to see the church progressively realize what true diversity, in the gospel of Jesus Christ, looks like. We dream of hundreds and even thousands of Peter-like transformations to the glory of God.So let’s look at our first passage this morning. I’ll read the text then I’ll pray for our time in it.By the way, if you’re visiting with us and don’t have a Bible, please take one of the brown Bibles home as your own. If you want a copy and if you’ll read it then we’d love for you to have one as a gift.Today’s passage is on page 1162 of those Bibles.
1 Peter 1:1-12
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:May grace and peace be multiplied to you.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
Here is our roadmap through these first twelve verses of Peter’s first letter. (1) Christians are on a journey; (2) Christians are on a journey home; and, finally, (3) Christians are on an unbelievably glorious journey home.
1. Christians are on a journey (vv. 1-2).
If you’re a follower of Jesus then you are an “elect exile” in this world. American Christians have a difficult time with this idea. Life is pretty darn good, we think. We like our existence here. Sometimes, we think, this world would make for a pretty good eternity—gadgets and gourmet food and games!Friends, Peter reminds us here that that is an evil and deadly lie to buy into. We are passing through this fallen world. Christians are to be a people who know they are on a journey in this world—in this life. So, if you’re a follower of Jesus, how are you doing with that?
Are you placing a weight, which created things were never meant to bear, on the stuff in this fallen, finite world?
Trying to find your ultimate happiness in your husband or your wife? Looking for feelings of worth in your career or your financial success? Unloading your dreams on your “golden” retirement years?
Or:
Are you on a journey “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, [a trek] for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood” (v. 2)?
I hope so because you’re meant for that journey!
I know a man, an incredibly talented and gifted medical doctor, who retired at an early age because he could. He’s not a believer, and I imagine he did this because he wanted to soak-up the joys of this life while he was still young enough to do so. For him, this world is it—joy is now or never!It is very sad to see him progressively crushed under the unbearable weight of his dreams for retirement. Friends, all the drinking and eating and traveling—which this world has to offer us—will, in the end, wear thin and leave us longing for so much more.This brings us to our second point. Christians are not on an aimless journey. Rather, we are on a journey with a destination.
2. Christians are on a journey home (vv. 3-9).
If this world is all that there is, if there is nothing beyond this earthly life, then humanity is in a bad, bad way. We are left to—“eat, drink, and be merry today for tomorrow we die.” Bertrand Russell, an atheist philosopher of the 20th century, summed it up this way:
That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.1
Pretty uplifting stuff! Yet, seriously, I really do appreciate Russell’s honesty because in the absence of God these are reasonable and true conclusions about life. Without God, all we really do have is a “firm foundation of unyielding despair”!Yet, Peter doesn’t speak about despair here. Instead, he speaks about hope. Peter speaks about hope because we have more than this fallen and finite world. We have a destination! We have a home! We have God! Look at what he writes:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (vv. 3-5).
This is such a totally different worldview than Russell’s worldview isn’t it! And the difference is in the destination—the difference is Who we call home!Friends, if this world is our home then we might as well despair of life itself. However, if we are meant for another world—if we are meant for another home—if we are heirs of a coming “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” Divine home for our inheritance—then despair becomes hope and happiness, even in the midst of life’s trials! Look at what Peter writes next:
In this [living hope] you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls (vv. 6-9).
There’s much that could be said about these verses—but let me just say this. When life in this fallen world bruises you, and it will without a doubt bruise you, when people you love die, when people you love betray you, when you fall apart, when your body fails you, when possessions fail you, when pleasures fail you, when this world fails you, Peter says rejoice that this world is not your home! Peter says rejoice that this world is not your hope!Furthermore, the sufferings of this world, Peter tells believers, will be used by God for our good. He says that the testing of our faith, like gold purified in fire, will “result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus.” Peter says, trials purify and parade our faith in Jesus!How does that work?
Trials purify our faith as we learn to cling to the eternal things of God and not the transient things of this world. E.G. When people betray us, we should learn to cling to our faithful and promise keeping God more and more tightly.
Trials parade our faith by providing a backdrop against which the world can clearly see the genuineness (and hopefully the beauty!) of true faith in Jesus. E.G. Consider how genuinely beautiful marital love shines forth as a husband faithfully cares for his wife who has Alzheimer’s.>
Friends, I am not telling you that you should seek out trials in this lifetime, and I do pray that this doesn’t sound Pollyannaish to you. If it does, I am sorry. However, I am saying (and I think Peter is saying) when trials come, as they will, we must faithfully cling to God evermore tightly, and, as we cling tightly to God, we must allow him to use that faith as a genuine and a beautiful gospel testimony for his glory in this fallen world.Now let me conclude with our final point.
3. Christians are on an unbelievably glorious journey home (vv. 10-12).
What God’s doing with us for all eternity thru the gospel of Jesus Christ is, without a doubt, unbelievably glorious. We, far too often, take this for granted. Peter says that Old Testament prophets “searched and inquired carefully” (v. 10) about this salvation that is ours in Jesus Christ. Then, Peter tells us that these are “things into which angels long to look” (v. 12).The prophets longed to experience the gospel-life in the ways we do today. The heavenly hosts long to catch a sneak-peek concerning the glory to be revealed in those who are Christians.
And we have trouble getting out of bed to read our Bibles!
We have a hard time keeping our minds from wandering during prayer!
Friends, we who are Christians are on an unbelievably glorious journey. What angel was God ever pleased to indwell? Yet, the Holy Spirit lives within us when we trust in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:16). What other creature did God choose to redeem for his glory and call to reign with him? But, that’s exactly what God has chosen to do with us through our faith in Jesus (2 Timothy 2:12).Creation probably most marvels that the eternal Son of God became human and will remain a man for eternity. Consider that for just a moment. Let it sink in! God dwelled with us that we might dwell with him. God’s Son journeyed with us that we might journey with him—forever!What an unbelievably glorious journey we have through faith! Don’t take it for granted! Don’t let the trials of this fallen world quench the flames of your hope in Jesus Christ! Rather, meditate on your glorious inheritance, your eternal home, which is nothing less than forever-fellowship with God!
1Bertrand Russell, “A Free Man’s Worship”; you can read it in its entirety here
