Word of Salvation - April 2011

 

Praise God and rejoice in his salvation! Rev. John de Jongh

(Sermon 2 in a series on 1 Peter)

 

Reading: John 3:1-8

Text: 1 Peter 1:3-9

 

Structure

 

1: Praise God!

He has given us new birth

Into a living hope

 

2: Rejoice in God!

In the hope & salvation he has given us

In spite of suffering

 

And so: Praise God and rejoice in his salvation!

 

 

Songs: BOW 22a; 217; Lord, I lift your name on high; People of God; BOW 145

 

The first couple of verses of this letter tell us that Peter wrote the letter, to God’s elect in the part of the world that we know today as Turkey. He refers to them as ‘resident aliens’ – God’s people, in this world but not of this world, chosen according to God’s eternal foreknowledge.

 

Point 1

Here Peter continues the letter in a fairly typical way for letters of his day. The average letter written then by a pagan would have continued with thanks to the pagan gods. Christians again took up that typical element of a letter, and Christianised it – they continued with thanks and praise to the true God. And so in this case, Peter has ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’. And you can compare that to similar statements in the other NT letters.

 

And then he states why he is praising God in this particular case – ‘God has given us new birth …’.

Some of us have had the privilege of being at a birth, seeing a new born baby enter the world. Most of us will at least have seen a new born baby soon after it was born.

And in a similar way to physical birth, God has given us new spiritual birth. Or as the NASB puts it, God ‘has caused us to be born again’.

 

If you had never heard of “being born again” before, you might ask the question Nicodemus asked in John 3. Jesus is talking to him about how to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus says that ‘no one can see God’s kingdom unless he is born again’. And Nicodemus scratches his head and asks, ‘how can a man be born when he is old?’ But Jesus isn’t talking about physical birth. He’s talking about spiritual birth – leaving the kingdom of darkness and entering the kingdom of God. Titus 3:5 calls it ‘rebirth’. And theologically we call it ‘regeneration’.

 

This follow on so well from where Peter started in the earlier verses! Peter started with God’s foreknowledge and election of his people. Already before the creation of the world, God planned out the universe, and he set the history of creation from beginning to end. He decided in his own mind who his people would be. And on the first day of creation he set about putting his plan and purpose into action. World history is the ongoing revelation of God’s secret will from before the creation of the world.

 

In light of the fall into sin in Genesis 3, with all of humanity coming under sin and death and God’s judgment against sin, God’s foreknowledge and election from eternity required that during the lifetime of each of his elect, he would bring them out of the kingdom of darkness and into his kingdom of light – out from under his judgment, and into his grace and mercy through Jesus Christ. And this transition is what the Bible calls being born again. We often call it ‘regeneration’.

 

Just think about those times when you’re walking through a national park, or maybe a new cutting on a highway. You come across a bare taped off area that only has a few patches of grass and the occasional shrub or sapling. Signs say ‘Keep off! Area under regeneration’. The area has become eroded and damaged. It’s dead. It needs new life. And so it has been protected, and grass and shrubs have been reintroduced. It’s being born again. It’s being regenerated.

 

This is what God has done for believers. We were dead in transgressions and sins. We were sun-scorched dry and dusty bones with no life in us. But God has given us new birth. He has regenerated us.

 

And one thing this makes very clear again is that this is definitely God’s work, and not ours.

Which baby has ever been the one to decide that it wants to be conceived and born? Or when it will be born? We joke about expectant mums having to wait until the baby is ready, but the reality is that they have not the least say in the process.

In the same way, God is the one who decides who will be born again, and when we will be born again. These things aren’t in our hands.

Arminians see things the other way, but as one RTC professor used to put it; as they enter heaven, above the door will be written, ‘you chose Me’, but on the other side it will say, ‘but I chose you first’.

 

See also that this new birth is into a living hope.

Physical birth is not an end in itself, it looks to the future. We don’t have a baby expecting it to stay a baby forever. We have a baby in hope, trusting that it will grow, mature, and become an adult.

 

And in the same way, God causing us to be born again is not an end it itself. We are born into a living hope – an expectation of much more to come – growth in godliness, Christ-like maturity, to be glorified on the last day.

 

And it’s a certain hope. It’s not the kind of wishful thinking that often isn’t fulfilled – like us hoping that the weather will do what we want. As Hebrews 11 says, this hope is being certain of what we don’t yet see.

 

And again, that’s possible because it only depends on what God has done and is doing for us. Peter mentions here the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead - something that has already been achieved. There is no doubt involved – sin, Satan and death have been defeated in Christ, our sin has been forgiven, we already have eternal life.

 

The content of this hope is an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.

In Genesis 12, God already promised to Abraham and his descendants the Promised Land as their inheritance.

Over time it was increasingly revealed that the ultimate Promised Land was in fact eternal life on the New Earth. And so Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham already ‘looked forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God’. And Revelation 21 and 22 describe that city in symbolic detail – the New Jerusalem.

As the NT makes very clear our full inheritance is actually kept safe for us in heaven.

 

Where, thankfully, it can never perish, spoil or fade.

You can leave your children flocks and herds. But ask the farmers who have walked off their drought stricken properties if there is any guarantee that that won’t perish.

You could leave them wheat farms and vineyards. But can you guarantee they won’t spoil?

You could leave them stocks and shares. But is there any guarantee that when they come into their inheritance, it hasn’t faded away in crash after crash?

But thankfully the treasure that God has laid up for us in heaven can never perish, spoil or fade. It is guaranteed to be there for us when we come into our full inheritance.

 

Verse 5 tells us that in the meantime ‘through faith we are shielded by God’s power’.

Again you see the interplay between God’s sovereignty and our responsibility – between God’s election and protection of his people, and our response to him of committed faith and obedience.

 

Of course we also struggle with the paradox.

Is God in control here – shielding us by his sovereign power? Or do we have to be responsible – trusting and obeying him?

Is he working out his eternal plan, and preserving us? Or are we having to turn to him in repentance and faith, and persevere?

And the reality is that in ways that we can’t completely understand, both are true. But God is in the driver’s seat. He is ultimately the one in control. And even our perceived freedom to decide for or against him is under his sovereign will. He is the first cause, we are only ever secondary causes. Or else there would be no guarantees.

We do need to hold on to God – and persevere. But more importantly he is holding onto us – preserving us. And even when we occasionally lose our grip on him, and doubt, or fear, or backslide, he doesn’t let go of his elect. And he brings us back.

 

For all these kinds of reasons - for giving us and all God’s people a new birth into a living hope, an eternal inheritance that can never be lost, God does deserve all praise.

 

Point 2

In verse 6, Peter says that in this hope and inheritance we greatly rejoice. It’s here that we find our ultimate joy.

As you watch your investments and superannuation fluctuate over the past couple of years, with all the economic ups and down, if you’ve been among the very few who didn’t see them dip too much, you have rejoiced.

 

If our faith and trust are in Jesus as our King and our Saviour, how much more can’t we rejoice that our eternal inheritance is tucked away safely, capital and interest guaranteed, where it can’t perish, spoil or fade, dependent only on Jesus’ death and resurrection, which has already been accomplished?

 

We may even lose our earthly investments. We may have to carefully budget our way through a tight retirement. But if our eternal inheritance is safe, do we have much to worry about?

 

And so we can greatly rejoice, ‘though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials’.

You’ll remember that Peter is thinking of the persecution that his readers were suffering at the time. They had heard the gospel. They had received it with open arms. Only to discover fairly quickly that it also came with persecution and suffering. Emperor Nero was persecuting Christians in Rome. Which gave unbelieving rulers, master, and husbands everywhere in the empire also the freedom to mistreat the Christians under their responsibility. And Peter’s readers were feeling the effects.

 

We were reminded as we looked at the earlier verses, that we suffer in similar ways, even if not to the same extent.

Some of us feel persecution in our workplace – with non-Christian workmates taking issue with the beliefs, principles, and values we live by.

We feel it in our community – having to fight local issues like abortion and prostitution, that not only go against God’s will, but undermine our society.

We feel it nationally, with some of the more recent laws biased against Christians - like the Victorian vilification laws, and medical laws threatening freedom of conscience.

But in the face of that, we can still find our deepest comfort and joy in our eternal future.

 

Peter even says here that God sends us these trials so that our faith might be proved genuine.

Doesn’t it reminds you of Jesus’ parables of the sower and soils. Jesus said that there are four kinds of soil that the seed of the gospel falls onto – the path, where the birds eat it; rocky soil, where it springs up quickly, and just as quickly dies under the hot sun; thorny soil, where it grows but is chocked by the weeds; and good soil, where it grows to harvest. Peter is saying here that the trials God sends us like suffering and persecution are the birds, the hot sun, and the thorns, which test the nature of the soil of our hearts. And where the gospel continues to flourish in spite of them, where faith and obedience grow and mature regardless, that is the good soil for all to see, that is the hearts of his elect.

 

And so in verse 8 he says, ‘though you haven’t seen him, you love him, and even though you don’t see him now, you believe in him, and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.’

 

Peter had seen Jesus in the flesh, walked and talked with him, sat at his feet, seen his miracles, for 3 years. And that had shaped his love and trust and commitment and joy.

But the believers he was writing to had never seen Jesus. They only had the word of Peter and the other apostles to go by. But even so, they had come to love Jesus too. The Holy Spirit had done a work of regeneration in their lives – they had been born again! They had put their trust in him. They too were filled with a joy that they found impossible to completely describe to others – joy in their heavenly Father, and in Jesus their Lord and Saviour, and in the sure hope of their salvation to be completed on the last day.

 

Conclusion

Isn’t that the example for us to follow as well?

What are the griefs and trials you struggle with – maybe persecution for your faith; or maybe the normal trials of life – health issues, struggling to find a spouse or the right job, struggling in your marriage, or in parenting your kids? Maybe even all of these at once.

 

But God is still the same sovereign God in heaven that he always has been. And he knows what we’re going through. He has even sent us these very trials to prove and refine our faith and trust in him.

 

So we too can rejoice in spite of them, knowing that God works all things for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. We can grow in our love for him. And in our faith and trust. We can grow in our hope in the better things he has in store for us in eternity. And we can grow in our joy, as we look forward to receiving our full inheritance.

We can spend our days too, praising God, and rejoicing in his salvation.

 

Amen