Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Peter 1:3-5

Making the Right Choice

Ashley George, an unmarried businesswoman, started a retail store after college.

After several years of hard work, her business venture failed, leaving no money or clear path forward, until one day the phone rang – twice.

The first caller was a former college professor offering a stable, middle-management role in a new retail chain, a role which would require a lot of hard work and long hours.

The second caller was a lawyer representing a distant uncle who had died, leaving her as the inheritor of his entire estate.

Ashley had never heard of this uncle and her parents were deceased, so she couldn’t ask about him.

The lawyer told her this man had been king over a large African tribe and since he never married, he had no close heirs.

As the closest kin, she was now in place to be the sole recipient of his estate on one condition.

She must travel to the village to be crowned queen.

Only then could she receive her inheritance and know its worth.

Believing she would receive a fortune, she closed her apartment lease, sold her car, and scraped together what little money she had left to purchase a passport and intercontinental airline tickets.

When she arrived, throngs of people greeted her in the streets, ushering her to a throne at the center of the city.

After a lengthy feast, a man stepped forward to read the deceased chief’s will.

“The estate of I, Mr. Leopold Long, is hearby given to my heir and includes sole right to sit on this tribal throne and possession of all my riches – my hut, wardrobe, and an acre of land.

I also give my money, 10,453,000 tokens, to care for the people of our tribe."

How much was 10,453,000 tokens?

Ashley asked this question, feeling she’d just become rich.

“When converted to U.S. dollars, madam,” he replied, “you’ll receive a large sum of $163.

Ashley’s heart plunged to her feet, and further if that were possible.

$163 wasn’t enough to recover 10% of the cost of her trip.

She should have taken the retail job instead!

Do you feel the same way?

While this is not a true story, it illustrates what followers of Christ may truly feel about their futures, wondering whether our future with God is worth suffering for now.

When we do pass from this world to the next, will be truly enter into the presence of Christ in heaven and spend forever in a sinless new Earth freed from sin, evil, and pain and more enjoyable, magnificent, and satisfying than anything this world offers today?

Thankfully, the source of our future, eternal inheritance is not a distant relative with whom we have no contact or meaningful relationship.

When we follow and suffer for Christ in this brief and temporary life, we are not taking so big of a risk as it may feel.

We may feel that our future with God is a risk, but it’s as certain as the character of God himself.

God the Father is the source of all blessings.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

As the famous and historic hymn exclaims, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow!” Do you feel this way about God today?

Or do you find it difficult to praise God in such an enthusiastic, confident manner because you feel as though following Christ has or will cost you more than you bargained for and brought about more suffering than blessing?

To bless God is to acknowledge and praise him as the source of all blessings, with an enthusiastic gladness and joy that permeates the rest of the passage, whether that be a letter like this one or an OT psalm.

So, whatever we read in this letter we should read it with enthusiastic, grateful joy towards God as the source of all our blessings.

By praising God as the source of all blessings and calling him the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Peter does not diminish the equal and total deity of Christ, as though Christ is somehow created by the Father or inferior or less divine that the Father in some way.

This description of God as the Father of Christ emphasizes Christ’s full, willing submission and obedience to the Father.

In this way, Peter presents Christ not only as our Savior but our example – an important thematic thread which will weave throughout the fabric of this letter.

He is our example in life and death and he’s our hope in life and death, as well.

Christ is the one, same God as the Father yet a distinct person from the Father.

He is also equal in deity, power, glory, and goodness to the Father and yet is submitted and obedient to the Father, too.

Astounding?

Submission to an equal is a hard, humbling thing to do.

Yet Christ models it for us perfectly and by doing so, not only successfully suffered, died, and rose again to deliver us from our sins, but provided an example for doing the same.

He enables us by his example and encouragement to submit to God as our God and to one another as our equals.

As Peter explains later in this letter, Christian citizens of any nation should – of all people – be the most submissive and compliant.

Even when treated poorly and improperly.

Christian children should be the most obedient toward their parents.

Christian wives should be the most submissive toward their husbands.

Christian husbands should be the most loving and sacrificial towards their wives, giving honor to their wives as Peter will later explain.

Christian employees should be the most reliable, good-natured, compliant employees.

Christian employers should be the most servant-minded employers in town.

Since Christ is our Lord, he is both God and master of our lives and deserves to be such because he is our Savior, perfect sacrifice, and coming King.

Therefore, we should submit ourselves to the Father and the Son just the same, no matter how badly we may suffer, because God alone is the source of all blessing.

Our Heavenly Father guards our future, eternal inheritance securely.

who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away,

reserved in heaven for you,

Here Peter tells us precisely why we should bless God – or at least the reason why from the standpoint of this letter, for God’s blessings cannot be reduced to one or two factors.

Peter wants us to praise God and be encouraged by the fact that he has caused us to be born again – giving us a new birth.

“New birth” emphasizes God the Father as the source, cause, and initiator of our salvation.

Just as infant children cannot take credit for their birth, so followers of Christ cannot take credit for their new relationship with Christ.

Though we make the choice to believe on Christ, we do not make that choice apart from God’s supernatural intervention into our lives, overcoming our sinful, rebellious nature.

Peter further emphasizes God’s initiative in our salvation by explaining the reason of our new birth as being “God’s abundant mercy.”

So, not only did we not cause our salvation, but we didn’t deserve or earn being saved, either.

Abundant here means something like “extensive” or “expansive.”

It describes the size and scope of God’s mercy towards us.

His mercy refers to how he is entirely committed and loyal to us even though we deserve for him to abandon us instead.

He is like that parent or friend who sticks with you through the ups and downs, the twists and turns of life.

As Hebrews 13:5 tells us, God “will never leave you nor forsake you,” even though and when you don’t deserve for him to be there, to be faithful to you.

This “new birth” also emphasizes entering a new state of existence, a new reality, a new life experience – a new, permanent, and close relationship with God.

Before this new birth, you were a hostile enemy towards God but now you are his close, beloved child.

Before this new birth, you were destined to go away into everlasting torment in the Lake of Fire, but now you are destined to go into a sinless new Earth forever.

Though you may still look the same in the mirror the day after you believe on Christ, you are still quite radically different.

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

(2 Cor 5:17)

What is the basis for this new life, existence, and ID? “The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

If Christ had not risen from the dead, then our new relationship with God would be impossible.

Yet because Christ has done the most improbable, impossible thing – resurrect from the dead – we now have a “living hope.”

Living here connects our hope to the resurrection of Christ and reminds us that our hope is not a wishful or dead hope.

It is a living and real hope.

Hope describes some future experience or outcome which we cannot see yet we know is coming, and we know this with great certainty and confidence.

Biblical hope is not wishful thinking (like I hope it will happen – fingers crossed) but is confident thinking (like I know it will happen – period).

Why can we have such certainty and confidence?

Christ rose from the dead.

That’s why.

Your inheritance is out of this world – literally.

What is it that we hope for?

An inheritance.

What exactly is this inheritance?

Inheritance refers to a portion of something that belongs to you, a possession, your personal property.

Why does Peter refer to our future, personal property here?

Consider this following, helpful spotlight that Karen Jobes shines onto the background of this concept in 1st century Judaism and Rome:

“The inheritance of land was the major source for increasing one’s wealth, social status, and security … In light of the role that land played in inheritance in both the Greek and the Semitic worlds, Peter’s teaching about the nature of their new inheritance invites a comparison of the new ‘land’ in which they hold inheritance (their share in the kingdom of God) with the land rights of their birth.

This comparison might have been especially meaningful to Christians displaced from their homeland (in the Diaspora).”

The great thing about our future inheritance in the New Creation – in God’s eternal kingdom – is not only that it will be there, but that it will be in mint, peak, perfect condition.

Incorruptible.

This means that death cannot affect it.

Undefiled.

This means that sin cannot devalue it.