Sermon: 1 Peter 1

1 Peter 1 Sermon

Through repetition, things can loose their wonder. Think about it. When you are a kid so many things are new and exciting. A balloon floating in the sky, the sight of a sparkler or fireworks amazes you. Yet as you get older, through constant exposure, you start to think of it as somewhat normal. In fact when you are a kid even look down on the other kids who still squeal with excitement about things like sparklers because you are so much more mature than they are.

In a book called Sophie’s World the author describes a child’s wonder at the world – “The Child looks up and says ‘Bow-Wow’ every time it sees a dog. It jumps up and down in its stroller waving its arms: ‘Bow-wow! Bow-wow!’ We who are older and wiser may feel somewhat exhausted by it’s enthusiasm. ‘All right, all right, it’s a bow-wow,’ we say unimpressed. ‘Please sit still.’ We are not enthralled. We have seen a dog before…the world has become a habit.

Through repetition, from hearing about it often in church and even in hearing about it in different contexts, I think we can loose the wonder of salvation. Like the word “love” the true meaning of salvation can get lost in overuse around us. Here are a couple of other uses of the word save that you might find in society today.

“Save 10% on all take-away orders before 7pm.” “I’m saving for a rainy day”, “Save me from mediocrity” Of course these things are different to the salvation that the bible talks about, but amongst our self-serve, self-reliant society biblical salvation seems irrelevant or useless. Certainly it makes it difficult to talk about salvation with non-Christians because they just don’t get the need for it. This idea of self-reliance can seep into our own thinking, and when that happens, the amazing nature of how we are saved becomes dull. That can make it harder to live a Christian life, because really salvation through Christ by faith is the foundation of how we live as Christians.

So what I want to do today is remind us of the greatness of salvation, of what we have in Christ’s death and resurrection. To try and re-establish that bedrock of our faith and from that talk about how we should live in the light of this glorious gift.

To help us grasp this idea better, it would be good to see why this letter could have been incredibly encouraging for the people it was written to, so we need to understand a bit about whom Peter was talking to. Peter is writing to a really diverse group of Christians; we know it is Christians since he is writing it to “God’s elect” and they are scattered everywhere, throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia and Asia. That’s a fairly wide area for people to be in.

Peter also mentions that they are strangers in the world. This is as much a comment on where they where physically, scattered around Asia Minor, as well as a look into their social status. Through the rest of Peter we see that he addresses slaves, wives & husbands, this may be because this is as good as it gets for these particular Christians in regards to social standing. The people living in these areas probably didn’t have much. Also perhaps as part of a bigger picture, as the elect of God, they are strangers in the world, which would mean they live differently to those around them who didn’t acknowledge Christ’s lordship and may have been shunned because of it.

From the context then of what they don’t have, Peter reminds them of the greatness of what they have received in Christ. See in verse 3. In God’s mercy he has given them a new birth into a living hope. It’s being born in to a new family, the family of Christ. And with this new birth, they have a new inheritance that can’t fade, spoil or perish. To these people who if they were slaves, were probably used to owning very little, Peter is shining a light on a glorious promise. To the hope that they have the future promise that is theirs through the resurrection of Christ.

You can see why it may have been easier for the people then to grasp the wonder of salvation because for them, it was obvious how much better it would be compared to their current situation. Throughout the history of the bible, there are many examples how the people wanted to be saved from where they where at and they looked to a Savior from God. Of course they sometimes got the wrong idea about what the Savior was going to rescue them from, for instance the Jews wanting to be saved from the Roman oppressors. Now I’m sure that a large majority of them did suffer under the Romans, but Peter wants to point them to a greater salvation than their immediate physical suffering.

We sometimes miss out on the major point of salvation too. While not many of us here worry about being saved from persecution under a foreign government, I think we can want to be saved from the annoyances, big and small, whether it’s the annoying co-worker, to a serious illness. But let’s look carefully at the promise that Peter is bringing up. Read verses 3-5 again. It’s one, really long sentence, and I get this impression that there is this immense idea that he wants to explain and it’s just gushing forth. It reads:

“In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, 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”

It’s a chain reaction, an unveiling of a truth of an increasingly fantastic nature initiated by Gods mercy. It’s not just talking about something as temporary as a change of government to improve lifestyle. It’s not talking about some cure for our constant headaches. It’s talking about an eternal inheritance. It’s a guaranteed future in God’s family for those who follow Christ. In response to this Peter says we should rejoice! And we should! You see that the inheritance and salvation is already waiting for those who are followers of God. In verse 4 it says, the inheritance is kept in heaven for you, and in verse 5 that we are shielded through faith until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. Have you ever thought of that? That through faith we are being shielded by God’s power? Yet another reason to give praise for what God has done for us.

Some people may be wondering what God is shielding us from. If God is shielding us from things like pain and suffering he isn’t doing a very good job. Peter however goes on to say that while we are waiting for the promised salvation, we can expect to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. Pointing to the future is all well and good, but that doesn’t change the fact that the people in the past, as well as us will have times of sorrow and suffering. So what should we do?

Peter isn’t telling us to close our eyes and wait till the better days come, to glaze over suffering now. He says that the trials are there for a purpose, the refining of our faith. He compares it to the process of refining gold, of heating it up to more than 1000 degrees centigrade and burning away the impurities. The trials help to prove our faith genuine.

I think like salvation we can sometimes be a bit complacent about our faith. We have faith and that is enough. Like it says in Ephesians 2 verse 9 “By faith alone we are saved, not from works so that no man can boast.” A greater faith doesn’t mean that we are more saved. Having a little faith doesn’t mean that we are saved less. So how does refining our faith do any good?


Perhaps our understanding along with our faith is refined when we face these trials. Each time we come through a trial we come face to face with God’s love and compassion, of the awesome nature of Christ’s sacrifice. And through it, our understanding of God will grow. Some of the misconceptions about what God is are burned away. We realize that the God we put in a box of our understanding is actually a whole lot bigger and grander than we could ever really imagine. We get through these trials through God’s grace and strength and our faithful response to these trials – a trust in him, is music to his ears. Look at the second half of verse 7 the trials come so it “may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

So through our sufferings our faith is refined. That doesn’t mean that we need to go out and seek suffering to get a better faith, I think as we live Christian lives suffering will come to us anyway. Also it’s talking about a refined faith, having a faith that is proved genuine. The importance of having a genuine faith is revealed in verse 9 “for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

The goal of our faith is the salvation of our souls. Our soul. It’s not just a salvation from the little things. This is eternal salvation from the mistake that man made way back in the beginning of creation that resulted in the world being cursed.

This probably would have had more impact on the people that Peter was writing to. As I was saying at the beginning of the sermon, I think we can have a fairly academic view of salvation and we don’t have this sense of anticipation about what it means. But the people that he was writing to – slaves, servants – people who were suffering, to be reminded of the fact that this suffering is a part of their faith that leads to salvation meant that they could stand that little bit taller. It meant that they could be confident and rejoice in God’s plan for salvation. The anticipation for this promised salvation was one they had been looking for a really, really long time. Peter mentions in verse 10 the prophets of the past who searched intently and with the greatest care into what the salvation was and that now the things they had been waiting for had come to pass. The sufferings of the Christ had happened, so now the glories will follow. The immensity of this glory is so great that even angels long to look into these things!

We need to recapture that sense of wonder about our salvation. As it says in verse 8 it starts with having a love for Christ, and even though we don’t see him now, we believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

I have to admit that when I chose this passage, I really struggled to come to grips with this idea of joy and amazing salvation. I read it multiple times and at one point I didn’t even want to write a sermon on it because I felt, well nothing really while reading it. I found it incredibly hard to get the joy of salvation – but after studying, praying and talking about it with some close Christian friends I got a glimmer and then a strong sense of God’s great mercy and power. I imagine I will soon loose the wonder again, but that doesn’t change the fact that God is great, nor does it make the promise of salvation any less awe inspiring. So don’t worry if you don’t feel like your head is in the clouds and everything is fine and wonderful – God’s promise is there, today and always that for those who follow him.

So what? What should we be doing with a greater understanding of salvation? How should we be living? Peter uses this firm foundation of the salvation God as a way to help the people understand how they should be living.

First and foremost it talks about in verse 3 how God, has chosen us through the sanctifying work of the spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ. It’s such a simple thing to say; yet it is so hard to do, obey God. All throughout the bible the command is to trust and obey. Paul in Philippians 2 tells us to have the same attitude as Christ Jesus who was obedient to death. A bit later on Peter talks about as obedient
Children we are to live a holy life, since God is holy.

I think part of that obedience comes in the need to share this message – The obedience that Peter talks about isn’t specifically about spreading the Gospel, but there are plenty of places that talk about how we should be talking about the salvation Christ offers. We need to be bold in speaking out to our non-Christian friends and co-workers, not with a fear of acceptance which means as one author puts it “we settle for the kind of friendliness within which all absolutes perish either for lack of interest or because the demands of the social etiquette’. There is an absolute, that faith in Christ is the way to salvation. I’m sure that if you do speak boldly you will come up against some ‘suffering’ whether that’s as subtle as getting a cold shoulder or something that may impact your financial or physical wellbeing – but as we explored before, through these trials our faith will be challenged, it will be refined to be proved genuine.

The other thing that comes up in this passage as a response to salvation is that we should be praising God. V3 again – Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

We don’t need to worry about the things in our future. We don’t need to stress about what may happen. If we trust in God, and follow him, we know what our future holds because we are told here in his word. We are given a new birth and inheritance with him. I can’t think of anything greater to praise the lord for. A life with him, free from the pain and death of this world, free from the ravages of sin. We are granted salvation through faith in Christ. Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Christ is revealed and Praise the Lord.

Amen