1. "It's wonderful to feel like you're in the right place. It's great to feel like you're home. Because that's true, it can be awful to feel homesick. It's awful to feel like you don't belong somewhere."

2. "I think sometimes we feel like our suffering isn't real unless it's on some massive scale. But God's care goes all the way down into the details of our individual lives."

3. "As the heat and the pressure gets turned up in our lives, impurities start to float to the surface. You begin to see in times of stress or trial patterns of anxiety, patterns of anger, irritability. You begin to see long-cherished idols, things that you think you absolutely need to have in order to be happy."

4. "God shows us those things not to discourage you, not to destroy you, but so that you can repent of them, so that you can turn from them, so that you can trust in him more completely, so that you can be refined and purified and be made stronger."

5. "These truths—that God has a purpose in our suffering, that he brings trials for our good—that's a truth you have to use as a weapon. You have to wield this truth. You can't be passive with it."

6. "Following Jesus doesn't mean that you'll have no problems. Nowhere in Scripture are we encouraged to think that God's highest goal in my life is my personal comfort and ease."

7. "When you take possession of this inheritance in the last time, every longing that can't be satisfied here on earth will be met and filled with the goodness of God."

8. "It's really sad how easily we become swallowed up in the cares of this world, overwhelmed by the trials of these days. It's sad how things like money and power and possessions sometimes grab hold of our hearts and they become the object of our hope until God in his love sends a trial to loosen our grip on them."

9. "We don't primarily love the things that he did, though they are great. We don't love him like you might love and admire some figure from history. No, our love for Jesus is love for a person who's alive right now."

10. "Our hope is a living hope because it's a hope in Jesus and he's alive. We live as exiles and sojourners now, and it is hard, it is painful at times. The sense of homesickness can be overwhelming. But if you are in Christ, you will get home one day."

Observation Questions

1. In 1 Peter 1:3-4, what does Peter say God has done for believers "according to his great mercy," and what three characteristics describe the inheritance that awaits them?

2. According to verse 5, how are believers being protected, and for what are they being guarded?

3. In verses 6-7, what does Peter say is the purpose of the "various trials" that grieve believers, and what illustration does he use to explain this?

4. What two things does Peter say about his readers' relationship with Jesus in verse 8, even though they have not physically seen Him?

5. In verses 10-11, what were the Old Testament prophets searching and inquiring about, and what specifically did the Spirit of Christ in them predict?

6. According to verse 12, who were the prophets ultimately serving when they prophesied, and who else longs to look into these things?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does Peter describe the Christian's hope as a "living hope" (v. 3), and how does the resurrection of Jesus Christ make this hope different from ordinary human hopes?

2. In verse 7, Peter compares the testing of faith to gold being refined by fire. What does this metaphor teach us about how God views our faith compared to material wealth, and why might suffering actually increase the value of our faith?

3. How does Peter's description of the inheritance as "imperishable, undefiled, and unfading" (v. 4) address the fears and anxieties that Christians might have about their future security?

4. Peter says trials come "if necessary" (v. 6). What does this phrase reveal about God's sovereignty over suffering, and how does this truth combat the temptation to believe that our suffering is random or meaningless?

5. Why is it significant that the prophets and angels—beings who had more direct access to God's revelation—longed to understand the salvation that New Testament believers now experience (vv. 10-12)?

Application Questions

1. Peter's readers were experiencing rejection and mockery because their faith made them no longer "fit in" with their former community. In what specific relationships or settings do you currently feel the tension of being a "spiritual exile," and how might this passage change how you view that experience?

2. The sermon emphasized that truths about God's sovereignty in suffering must be "wielded like a weapon" rather than passively acknowledged. What is one trial you are facing right now where you need to actively preach these truths to yourself, and what specific truth from this passage will you rehearse?

3. Peter assumes that believers love Jesus even though they have not seen Him (v. 8). What specific practice could you add or strengthen this week—in Scripture reading, prayer, worship, or meditation—to cultivate a deeper, more personal love for Christ?

4. The sermon highlighted the importance of Christian community in reminding one another of God's control and purposes during trials. Who is someone in your church or small group currently going through a difficult season whom you could encourage this week with the truths from this passage?

5. Considering that our eternal inheritance is "imperishable, undefiled, and unfading," what earthly treasure, comfort, or security have you been gripping too tightly that you need to hold more loosely in light of what God has promised you?

Additional Bible Reading

1. John 3:1-15 — Jesus explains to Nicodemus what it means to be "born again" by the Spirit, the same concept Peter references as the source of our living hope.

2. Romans 5:1-5 — Paul teaches that suffering produces endurance, character, and hope, reinforcing Peter's message that trials have a refining purpose in the believer's life.

3. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 — Paul describes present afflictions as "light and momentary" compared to eternal glory, echoing Peter's perspective that trials last only "a little while."

4. Hebrews 11:13-16 — The heroes of faith are described as strangers and exiles on earth who were longing for a heavenly homeland, connecting to Peter's theme of Christians as sojourners.

5. Revelation 21:1-7 — John's vision of the new heaven and new earth describes the fulfillment of the inheritance Peter promises, where God will dwell with His people and wipe away every tear.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Experience of Feeling Like an Exile and Longing for Home

II. Present Suffering: God's Control and Purpose in Trials (1 Peter 1:6-7)

III. Future Glory: The Living Hope and Eternal Inheritance (1 Peter 1:3-5, 9-12)

IV. Present Joy: Loving and Believing in Jesus Despite Not Seeing Him (1 Peter 1:8)

V. Living with Joy Now Because of Our Hope of Future Glory

Detailed Sermon Outline

Well, it's a real joy for me to be with you all this morning. I bring you greetings from Sterling Park Baptist Church out near Dulles Airport. It's wonderful to see lots of new faces, but also some faces from the past. This time of year, actually being in this room at this time of year is very nostalgic for me. So I began attending Capitol Hill Baptist Church in the fall of my sophomore year in college.

So that was 1994. If you're old enough, you know that as the years begin to accumulate, certain periods of your life sort of stand out more than the others as you look back over the timeline. And for me, the time that I spent at Capitol Hill Baptist as a college student is one of those periods of time that sort of stands out in relief. So when I think of home, one of the images that comes into my head often is East Capitol Street in October. So as a college student, I would take the Metro from Foggy Bottom to South Capitol Street.

I'd come up and make a right there on East Capitol, and I'd walk to the church building, oftentimes a couple times a week, my compact disc player in my hand, holding it very flat so the disc wouldn't skip. But those brick sidewalks, the sunlight streaming through the golden canopy, the smell that leaves make when they've been sort of crushed by parked cars, the old Capitol Market or Congress Market rather, recently departed, greatly mourned, right? I picture all of that in my mind. I can put myself right there and I feel like I belong there. Even standing here, actually, if I'm sitting there, I feel like I belong here.

It's wonderful to feel like you're in the right place. It's great to feel like you're home.

Because that's true, it can be awful to feel homesick. It's awful to feel like you don't belong somewhere. So Karen and I are at the dropping kids off for college stage of life. We're getting pretty good at dislodging kids in strange places and then leaving them there and then dealing with the inevitable homesickness that follows. We can probably all call up in our minds a time when we felt homesick homesick, when we felt like we didn't belong.

For me, when I travel to other countries, I enjoy traveling. I love seeing new places, meeting new people. But after a while, if that trip is extended, it begins to wear on me. I just become aware that I don't quite belong here. I don't speak the language.

Maybe I don't know what the signs say. I'm not really sure of things culturally, what might give offense, what might not.

You can't get a good cup of coffee really anywhere else in the world except America. I know that's controversial, but pouring hot water into espresso is not coffee.

Inevitably, when you're away from home, you begin to have this longing to be back where you belong. Right, at home, you know how things operate without having to think about it. You know how to get a ride, you know where good places are to eat, you're surrounded by people that love you. Well, the New Testament letter of 1 Peter was written to people who were feeling a kind of homesickness, even though most of them were probably living right where they were born and had grown up. Peter was an apostle, one of the leaders in the early church.

He was one of Jesus' closest friends. He saw everything that happened pretty much with Jesus' life and ministry. His death, his resurrection. And so at the very beginning of Peter's letter, we see something important about his audience. So if you have a Bible, if you'd open it up to 1 Peter, you read there in the very first verses, 1 Peter 1:1-2, he says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion.

In Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 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. So this morning we're going to think about a letter. We're going to look at a letter that was written to people that Peter calls there in verse 1 exiles. Later on in chapter two, he refers to them as sojourners. He's not talking here about a literal exile.

He's not writing to people who've been forced to leave their homeland and have been forbidden to return. No, he's talking about the experience that Christians commonly have in this world, an experience of just not quite being home. As you read through the letter of 1 Peter, you see the Christians to whom it was addressed were being mocked for their faith. Their old friends were rejecting them because they had trusted in Christ. They were being questioned pointedly about their beliefs.

In short, their faith in Christ meant that they no longer quite fit in. They were no longer accepted. They no longer belonged. If you're a Christian, maybe you've felt something of that yourself. Maybe you don't experience outright hostility and violence because of your faith, though some of us may and our brothers and sisters around the world certainly do, but perhaps you can identify with that low-grade sense of homesickness, that you just don't fit in in this world, that you don't ultimately belong here.

Maybe since you've become a Christian, you don't quite get along with your family. The way you used to. Maybe you find it hard to make friends at work or in your neighborhood because you don't want to gossip and tell dirty jokes. Maybe you find yourself getting passed over for promotions or jobs because you have different priorities and beliefs than your coworkers. All those sorts of things can combine to make us homesick, to make us feel like exiles and sojourners, like this place isn't home.

Peter's readers were certainly not at home. And you could say they were made for heaven. They were made to live with God. And so in the passage I want to consider with you this morning, we're going to see how Peter encourages these homesick Christians and how we can take courage as we live in this world. So let me read to you 1 Peter 1:3-12.

This will be our text for this morning.

1 Peter 1:3-12. 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 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. In this 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. Concerning the salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 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. Well, brothers and sisters, here's what I want us to walk away with from this passage this morning. I want us to see that because we have a hope of future glory, we can have joy now despite our suffering.

Because we have hope of future glory, we can have joy now despite our suffering. And so with our time, I'd like to just pick that idea apart and look at at each constituent part. First, let's look at the idea of present suffering in this text. And then let's see the hope of future glory. And then finally, we'll see how that gives us deep joy.

So first, present suffering. Look there in verses 6 to 7. Peter wants to talk to the recipients of his letter about the different ways that they're suffering for their faith, the various trials that he mentions there at the end of verse 6. I think it's encouraging that Peter writes in such a general way. What he is going to say to them applies to them in all of their various trials.

At this point in history, so roughly 64 AD, there wasn't some particularly large-scale persecution of Christians that we can point to and say, okay, yeah, that's what Peter's talking about. Instead, it seems like there were simply a lot of various trials, difficulties, large and small, that followers of Christ experienced then and experience now. I think sometimes we feel like our suffering isn't real unless it's on some massive scale. But God's care goes all the way down into the details of our individual lives. And so we can apply Peter's words here to the various trials that we experience in our life.

The word that Peter uses there in verse 6 for trials, it has a large range of meaning. We see it in other places in the Bible that word's used to describe things like verbal and physical assaults or a process of putting something to the test to see whether or not it was genuine. This word is used in other places in the Bible to describe a difficult situation that imposes a financial hardship. It's also used to describe a temptation to sin, right? The attacks, the temptations of Satan in Matthew's gospel are described using this same word for trials.

And so perhaps you find yourself in a trial, experiencing one of these various trials today. Maybe you're having health difficulties. Maybe financial problems have come knocking. Perhaps you are experiencing intense temptation to sin. Maybe you're in a season of depression or anxiety or despair.

Maybe there's a difficult relationship in your family that's exhausting you. Maybe you're being excluded because of your faith in different contexts. If your life is characterized by any of those things or things like them, if it ever has been or will be at some point, then you can be sure Peter is talking to you with what he says here today. And look at what Peter says about these various trials. He seems to be making two different points about these difficulties.

First, he reminds us that God is in control of them. Look there in verse 6. He says, In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials. These trials that Peter's readers were enduring, the trials that are grieving you today, Peter seems to think that they're happening because they're necessary. And while he doesn't say it explicitly, it's pretty clear that his meaning here is that they're necessary because God considers them necessary.

God has a good and loving purpose that he wants to accomplish in our lives, and he will do it Oftentimes through trials. Peter's reminding us here, trials, difficulties, they don't come to us by accident. They're not random. No, in God's sovereign plan, they are necessary. The second thing we see is that God has a purpose in these difficulties.

And Peter tells us what it is oftentimes there in verse 7. He uses the idea of refining metal. So in verse 7 he says, 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. Peter is talking about refining metal here, right? You understand, if you mine a chunk of metal out of the earth, it will likely not be 100% pure.

It'll have foreign debris in it, it'll have various impurities in it. And so the only way to get that stuff out is to heat it up until it's a liquid. Then the impurities, the dross, float to the surface, they can be skimmed off, and the result is a pure piece of metal, and oftentimes a much stronger piece of metal. And Peter is saying that trials oftentimes have a similar effect on us, as the heat and the pressure gets turned up in our lives, impurities start to float to the surface. I don't know about you, I'm a much more patient father when everything's going my way, right?

When that plumbing that I tried to fix actually stays fixed, right? Then when my kids come to me with some problem, I'm like, yeah, this is great, let's deal with it. Right? But no, it's when the trials come, large or small, that's when stuff starts floating to the surface. You begin to see in times of stress or trial, patterns of anxiety, Patterns of anger, irritability, you begin to see long cherished idols, things that you think you absolutely need to have in order to be happy.

Trials oftentimes bring things out in us so that we step back and say, I didn't realize that was in me until I had to go through this situation. I didn't realize I'd made such an idol out of my job or my reputation or my comfort or my kids or my friends or my health, but now that those things have been threatened or even taken away from me, Look at how I've responded. And brothers and sisters, God shows us those things not to discourage you, not to destroy you, but so that you can repent of them, so that you can turn from them, so that you can trust in him more completely, so that you can be refined and purified and be made stronger.

Do you see how Peter's words here address the two major temptations that we're faced with when we're beset with various trials. When things go badly, large or small, it can be easy to believe that God isn't actually in control. We're tempted to think that somehow we've slipped out from under God's notice and care, that he's forgotten about us, otherwise he wouldn't allow us to have this trial. We're also oftentimes tempted to think that our suffering is meaningless, that there's no purpose in these trials that we go through. Right?

Those two beliefs together are a recipe for despair. But Peter comes alongside his readers and says, God may find it necessary for you to endure these trials. Your heavenly Father, who loves you so much that he didn't withhold even his own Son from you, but gave him up freely to die for you, that same Father, He knows this is happening. He's even sent this trial. He has a good and a gracious purpose in it.

You see there at the end of verse 7, it results in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And Peter's words are kind of vague. It's not obvious who's getting the praise and glory and honor. I mean, obviously, It would be appropriate for that to be directed toward God, toward the Lord Jesus Christ who's saved us and preserved us in these trials. But some commentators think that actually God in His great mercy will praise you for having endured this trial.

God is a good purpose, a gracious purpose, Peter reminds us, in these trials. And look, it may be easy to recognize that reality when things are going well. So if you're having a great day, and it feels like everything's coming up you today, then it might be very easy to sort of intellectually understand, okay, I got it. God gives trials for my good and for His glory to make me more like Jesus, to spread His gospel. But if we're honest, it's hard when trials come.

And here's what I've seen in my own life. Here's what I've seen in the lives of the saints that I serve and pastors, that these truths, that God has a purpose in our suffering, that He brings trials for our good? That's a truth you have to use as a weapon. You have to wield this truth. You can't be passive with it.

Right? It's not my normal experience that when trials come, right, large or small, that I just easily shrug my shoulders and say, oh, well, it's all good. God's in control. You know, normally in painful situations, when the panic, the anger, the anxiety are beginning to flood in, We have to wield these truths from Scripture like a sword. You have to keep preaching to yourself because you know that it's true, even if in the moment you're not feeling like it's true.

You have to fight for joy in times of trial with these twin truths. God is in control and he uses trials to bless his people and to glorify his name. Brothers and sisters, I think this is one of the ways, one of the most important ways you serve one another as a church. That's why you don't just sort of get together every Sunday as a sort of meeting spot for preaching and singing and worship, but you actually get to know one another and invest each other's lives in one another so that when trials come, you're connected to other people who can love you and encourage you so that when you can't see out of the fog of your difficulties, you have people who love you enough to say, Brother, sister, God's in control. He loves you.

He has something good in all of this. You can trust him. You remind one another of these truths. You don't let one another slip into despair, into believing false things about God. Following Jesus doesn't mean that you'll have no problems.

Nowhere in Scripture are we encouraged to think that God's highest goal in my life is my personal comfort and ease. No, our hope is that God, in his great love, has much bigger plans for us. That he will use trials, he will use difficulties to shape and to refine us and to accomplish his good purposes.

Okay, so let's move on and see the second thing we're going to see this morning. That is future glory.

Remember what we're seeing from this passage. Because we have a hope of future glory, we can have joy now despite our suffering. So future glory. In this passage, Peter is sliding back and forth between a couple of different perspectives. So in the foreground, he has the suffering and the trials that his readers are enduring.

But out on the horizon, he clearly sees a future glory that's going to make their present sufferings worthwhile. Look there in verses 3 to 5. Peter says, 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. So there in verse 3, Peter begins with a word of praise to God for his great mercy.

He says, According to God's mercy, he has caused us to be born again. That idea, born again, it's a term that Jesus uses in John chapter three to describe what it means to experience the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, the grace of God. Jesus said there that if we would enter into his kingdom, we must be born again. He explained, that he wasn't talking about a second birth physically, but he was talking about a spiritual birth. Jesus said that in order to be his disciple, in order to experience his salvation, the Holy Spirit had to take you and make you alive, spiritually speaking.

When we are born, we are physically alive but spiritually dead. We're spiritually dead in the sense that we love ourselves We love our sin. We can't know God or please God. And honestly, we don't want to. But according to God's great mercy, not because of anything in us, but because of who God is, Peter says there, He caused us to be born again.

He has given us new spiritual life. If you look down in verse 9, Peter uses a different idea to describe that same reality. There he refers to it as the salvation of your souls. That's what God has done for us in Christ by his great mercy. Even though through our sin and rebellion we had made ourselves his enemies, God sent his Son to save us.

The eternal Son of God took on human flesh. He lived a life of perfect obedience to God, the life that you and I should have lived. And on the cross he gave up his life in our place as a substitute for us, offering up his life as a sacrifice for the sins of his people.

Taking on himself all of the punishment, all of the guilt, all of the shame that we deserve. Jesus rose from the dead in victory over sin and death. Peter mentions that there in verse 3. It's through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. If Jesus simply died and then stayed in the tomb, there is no salvation for your soul, but he rose in victory over sin and death and he's alive now in heaven And he offers forgiveness, salvation, eternal life to anyone who will turn from their sins and put their trust in him.

This is what Peter's talking about there in verses 9 and 10. Again, he calls it the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Right, salvation, it's a really helpful word. It implies danger, right? It's only people in danger who need to be saved.

If I'm sitting on the beach reading a book, I do not need the lifeguard to come save me. It's only when I've been sort of dragged under by the undertow and I'm flailing and at the very end of my rope, then I need to be saved. Every human being is in great spiritual danger. That's why we need salvation. We are, spiritually speaking, pulled under by the current and unable to save ourselves.

And so God Peter says, In his great mercy has provided for our salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus. And so, friend, if you haven't experienced that salvation yet, if you haven't turned from your sins and turned to Jesus in faith, then there's no reason to delay. In his great mercy, God has provided for the salvation of anyone who will come to Christ in humble faith. And so if today you can feel something of the danger you're in, spiritually speaking, then the good news is there is salvation available. If you can see the danger that you're in as someone who has ignored God and opposed God and loved yourself rather than loving him, today can be the day your soul is rescued for all eternity.

Again, we would love to talk to you more about that. I'd encourage you to talk to the person who invited you or talk to somebody at the doors.

Don't wait, but turn to Christ and experience his salvation. There in verse 3 we see the results that this salvation brings about in our lives. We see what happens because we've been born again by the powerful work of God's Spirit. Now, Peter says, because that's true for everyone of whom that's true, he says, we have a living hope. He says, we're born again to a living hope.

We have a confident expectation about something that's going to happen in the future. It's a living hope. It's a vibrant, growing thing. And the object of that hope, the thing that we're hoping for, is right there in verse 4. Peter calls it an inheritance.

Now, you understand how someone hopes in an inheritance that they're about to receive. Let's say you're broke. For some of us, this won't be too hard to imagine, right? You're just making ends meet. You're living paycheck to paycheck.

Maybe you're not even making it all the way to payday. You've got debt. You're falling behind on your payments. It seems like there's no way out of this spiral. That's a depressing, upsetting place to be.

That's a trial. But let's say you've been promised an inheritance. Let's say a wealthy relative has promised to leave you $50 million. You'd put a lot of hope in that inheritance, wouldn't you? It would be on your mind a lot as you considered the troubles that you were in.

You would place all of your hope in the fact that that $50 million is someday coming your way. Right? The doctor bill that you can't cover, all of the expenses of the day, the problems that you have right now, they're ultimately not going to bother you because you know that in the end it turns out all right. In the end, you get the 50 million, you pay the bills, and everything will be resolved. Well, Peter says, if you've been born again, by God's mercy, to this living hope, you have an inheritance coming to you.

And get this, and if you get this, it will change everything. This inheritance that we have coming to us as God's people is way better than 50 million dollars. There at the end of verse 4, It's an inheritance in heaven. If the Old Testament talked about the inheritance that the people of Israel would have in the terms of the land of Canaan, the New Testament talks about the inheritance that believers have in the eternal city of God. Right?

Your inheritance is a share of the heavenly kingdom. That's your heavenly reward given to you by a gracious and merciful God. When Christ returns and all things are brought to a conclusion, right? Words of verse 5, you, salvation is revealed, right? When it's brought to the point of completion in the last time, as Peter says there, you'll take possession of this great inheritance.

This inheritance is life in a perfect world, life in a place of beauty, a place that flourishes. It's life in the presence of God where we will see his face and we will be transformed and renewed. Think about it. When you take possession of this inheritance at the last time, when Jesus comes back and he ushers in this new world, there will be no sickness, there'll be no sorrow, there'll be no sin. Right?

When you take possession of this inheritance, everything will be made right and holy. Brothers and sisters, when you take possession of this inheritance in the last time, every longing that can't be satisfied here on earth will be met and filled with the goodness of God. Christian to take possession of this inheritance in the last time is to have all of your trials and temptations and tears wiped away. Right? Just think, this is, I think, a helpful sort of thought experiment that I try to do from time to time.

Just think about the most wonderful thing you've ever seen in your life. The most awe-inspiring, breathtaking place you've ever been. So maybe it's the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls or some other natural wonder. So for me, what I call up immediately in my mind is a beach in the Dominican Republic where I found myself sitting with some friends one day. We were swimming there and we noticed all the Dominican people were getting out of the water, right?

Which is a good tip that you should get out of the water also. And sure enough, waves started coming in 10, 15 feet high. And so everyone cleared off the beach. The sun was setting. We're sitting there with friends.

And I noticed after a few minutes, no one was talking anymore. And all we could do is look at these waves, crystal clear water. I grew up going to the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey, right, where the water looks like someone spilled coffee, right? But this is like someone melted a jewel, right? It's that bright blue, and when it comes up in these massive waves, it's crystal clear, and so these massive waves are breaking like five feet off the beach, and as the sun went down, this streak of blue light would go through each wave as it crested, and I realized no one's talking anymore.

We're all just watching this. Right now, think for a second. Think about seeing something like that and then just think for a moment, that is only a tiny derivative splinter of the beauty and grandeur and glory of God who has prepared an inheritance for you. Right? When you experience your salvation, when it's brought to completion in eternity, it will be unlike anything you can imagine.

The inheritance that God has prepared for you will be far more than even the most skillful poet could ever describe, than the best musician could ever point to, us to than the greatest artist could ever capture on canvas. There's a lot we don't know about what it's going to be like to take possession of that inheritance. There's a lot of questions about life in eternity that we can't answer, right? But we don't know exactly what it's going to be like to live forever in a new heaven and new earth when Jesus returns. But friends, we can be confident that there is nothing you could buy with $50 million that would even begin to tempt you to trade it for that inheritance.

There in verse 4, Peter says that it is kept for you. Right, it's secure. This inheritance is in a deposit box in the impregnable First Bank of New Jerusalem. No thief can steal it, no market fluctuation can diminish it. He says it's being kept for you.

He says there in verse 4, it's imperishable. Not subject to decay. Gold and silver endure, but they don't endure forever, right? They can be destroyed, but not your inheritance, Peter says. He says there in verse four, It is undefiled, pure, unalloyed.

Right? When we receive that inheritance, we never have to worry again about the pollution of sin. Peter says there in verse four, It's unfading. This is what's amazing. Through all eternity, this inheritance will never seem less glorious to you.

You'll never grow tired of it. There is no buyer's remorse. It will never lose its luster. It is unfading. Brothers and sisters, that's a pretty amazing inheritance.

That's a pretty fantastic salvation. Do you see what a privilege we have? Do you see how amazing the blessings of Christ are? It's really sad how easily we become swallowed up in the cares of this world, overwhelmed by the trials of these days. It's sad how things like money and power and possessions sometimes grab hold of our hearts and they become the object of our hope until God and His love sends a trial to loosen our grip on them.

But let's keep our eyes focused on what we have in Christ. There in verse 12, Peter says that the Old Testament prophets, so think Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, all of those heroes of the faith, it turns out they were actually serving us.

This inheritance is so great that they were searching and inquiring carefully, Peter says in verse 10, just to get a sliver of understanding about the salvation that God has brought about through the suffering and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as he says there in verse 11. Right, the prophets lived their whole lives longing to see just a tiny bit of what we're tempted to take for granted, this marvelous salvation that God has accomplished for his people through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Even the angels right now, Peter says, are longing to look into these things and to understand more about them. They're delighting to see God's plan unfold so that they can rejoice in the glory of what God's doing in your life, in the life of this congregation, what he's gonna do in eternity. Now, friends, that is some hope.

That is some inheritance. And that brings us to our third and final point. Remember, because we have hope of future glory, we can have joy now despite our suffering. So we've seen something of the present suffering that we experience. We've thought about the hope of future glory.

So let's pull it together now and think about how we can have joy in these days? How should we live in light of the twin realities of our trials and our inheritance? Peter says with joy, there in verse 6, In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials.

Despite their trials, despite their difficulties and troubles, the Christians reading Peter's letter were marked by rejoicing. They were being grieved, but they had joy. Notice Peter doesn't command us to have joy. No, he assumes that we have joy because we have Christ, because we have this inheritance. He says, these trials come for a little while there in verse 6.

Listen, I want to be sensitive to the fact that if you are suffering today, that might sound like a frustrating thing for Peter to say. What do you mean, Peter, a little while? It's been 10 years. It's been 20 years. I see no sign of this trial abating.

And you're saying a little while? Well, yes. Peter's saying in light of our eternal inheritance, yes.

Even decades of suffering will eventually give way to unending glory and comfort. There will come a time when the things that grieve you right now will belong to the category of former things, things that have passed away, according to Revelation 21:4. That's why the apostle Paul, who spent most of his adult life getting beaten within an inch of his life, left for dead, shipwrecked, right, thrown in prison. That's why Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 can talk about our light and momentary afflictions. When you've had a sniff of an eternal perspective, when you have your hope set on a future inheritance that goes on forever, when your hope is set there, you see things on earth just a little bit differently.

Look there in verse 8. If there's a more exalted picture of what it means to be a Christian, I don't know what it is. He says there, Though you have not seen him, you love him. Now, like us, Peter's audience hadn't seen Jesus. They didn't have the advantage that Peter had.

He knew Jesus perfectly. He saw---or personally, he saw him teach, he saw him heal, he saw him die and rise from the dead. Peter knows even though his audience hasn't seen Jesus like that, they love him. I'm struck by how beautiful that is, how simple, how clear that is. Even as we sang earlier, More love to thee, O Lord.

Right, what a beautiful prayer. Right, we make being a Christian a lot of different things, and sometimes that's good, but here it is, in a way, in its essence, we love him. When we're born again to a living hope, when we're given eyes to see and hearts to love the Lord Jesus, we love him because we read the gospel accounts of his life and we see how wise, how compassionate, how strong, how loving he is. We love him because he gave up his life for us, because he took from us the shame and the punishment and the suffering that our sins deserved. We don't primarily love the things that he did, though they are great.

We don't love him like you might love and admire some figure from history. No, our love for Jesus is love for a person who's alive right now. He's risen from the dead again, as Peter reminds us in verse 3. We don't have to cast our love for him back across the millennia, but we love him like Peter's audience loved him right now.

If you claim to be a follower of Christ, take time to meditate on this statement. You haven't seen Jesus, but you love him. Is that statement true of you? If we watched your life, if we had access to your thoughts, if we had a transcript of your words, if we could somehow plot your affections on a graph. If we looked at the way you obey his commands or don't, would we conclude this is a person who loves Jesus?

Do you know this love is something that can be grown? It's something worth cultivating. Again, it's one of the reasons Jesus's people gather to worship together, right? We come together to cultivate and to grow our love for the Lord Jesus. As we read the word, as we pray together, as we're taught from the word, as we join our voices This is together to praise our Savior.

As I hear you singing, I'm reminded of just how lovely and beautiful Christ is as we contemplate together the beauty of his character and his love and his mercy and his tenderness, his righteousness, his suffering, the glory of his resurrection, the gift of the Spirit. As we've thought about all of those things this morning, I find my heart, my love is stoked. It's fresh oxygen being blown on the embers of my heart. I hope you felt that too. Even in your private time of worship, as you read the Bible, as you pray and sing, do so with an eye towards seeing Jesus more clearly and ask the Holy Spirit to help you to love him even more.

Add kindling to the fire of your love for Jesus every day. I think this is a hallmark of Christian maturity. You haven't seen him, but you love him. There are believers that have never read a word of systematic theology, who have, frankly, lousy ecclesiology. They don't know a word of Greek.

They aren't following any of the squabbles on the Christian internet. But you talk to them for five minutes and you know they love Jesus, right? Because he's what they think about all day. Because they can't wait to see him and be with him. When I became the pastor at Guilford Baptist Church, 18 plus years ago, there was an elderly saint there named Nancy Higgs.

She's gone to glory land. Can't wait for you to meet her. And, and Miss Nancy, I remember one, one Sunday. It was Easter Sunday. And on Good Friday, I had preached a sermon on Jesus hanging in the darkness for us.

It's an amazing idea. My, my sermon on it was fine. Nothing extraordinary. But I remember Miss Nancy came up to me after Easter service, and she had tears in her eyes, and she wasn't the kind of person who'd, like, put on tears for a show. This was genuinely.

Coming from her heart. And she said, you know what you talked about on Friday about Jesus hanging in the darkness? She said, I'd never heard that before. I never thought about that. I was like, oh, well, I'm glad that was helpful.

And she started to cry and she said, I'm so glad I learned that about Jesus before I go to meet him, because it makes me love him even more. Right, friends, that's Christian maturity, right? That's someone who loves the Lord Jesus Christ. You haven't seen him. But you love him.

Peter doesn't stop there. He keeps going in verse 8. He says, you, haven't seen him, but you believe in him. That word believe is the word for faith. It's just made into a verb, right?

You have faith in him. Peter's saying that you have faith in Jesus. And that word is important because it's far more than just intellectual assent. It's not simply saying, I believe that a bunch of things happened in the past. It's more even than just an expectation that something great is going to happen in the future.

Right, so for example, I believe that George Washington was the first president of the United States. I didn't see him, but I believe that about him. Right, I believe that it will snow in Minnesota this winter. I haven't seen it with my own eyes, but I think I'm on solid footing. Neither one of those senses of belief captures what the Bible talks about when it talks about faith.

It's not less than those things, but it's certainly more than those things. Peter says, when you believe, he doesn't say, you believe certain things about Jesus. He doesn't say, you, believe Jesus did certain things. No, he says, you, believe in him.

Faith that Peter's talking about here, it's trust, it's reliance, it's hope. Right? It's pushing all of your chips in, putting all your eggs in his basket. It's putting all of your confidence in Jesus. Right?

It's like the faith that you exhibited when you sat down in your seat today, right? You believed in that seat. You thought it would keep you off the floor and so you put all of your weight on it. In the same way, faith in Jesus is putting all of your spiritual weight on him, putting all of your trust in him. Right?

Being a Christian is such a personal, intimate thing. It's about knowing Jesus and loving him, trusting in him.

Peter says here, Despite all their trials, these believers loved Jesus. They believed in him, and they had inexpressible joy.

I think it's amazing that Peter was an apostle. He is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the best word he can come up with to capture this joy is inexpressible. Which I take to mean I don't know what to say, right? This joy is so great that he can only say it's inexpressible and filled with glory. It's too much for words.

Brothers and sisters, our lives should be characterized by a living hope, a hope that's like a live power line, right? Full of juice. Sparking, buzzing, pregnant with power in our lives. Our hope is a living hope because it's a hope in Jesus and he's alive. As Peter reminds us again in verse three.

Brothers and sisters, because we have hope of future glory, we can have joy now despite our suffering. If you had the hope of a $50 million inheritance, you would think about your money problems differently. You'd worry less, you'd be more patient, you'd endure troubles. How much more those of us who have a future inheritance in heaven. We live as exiles and sojourners now, and it is hard, it is painful at times.

The sense of homesickness can be overwhelming. But Peter reminds us here, if you are in Christ, you will get home one day. And when you get there, there is an inheritance being kept for you. When you get home, you will see Jesus. And that hope is enough for us to have joy now.

Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we delight in your great mercy that you would cause us to be born again by the power of your Holy Spirit to such a living hope.

Why would you love people like us? There is nothing in us. That compels your love. It is your glory, it is your goodness, it is your greatness that is able to love us despite how unlovely we are. We thank you for the gift of your Son, Lord Jesus.

We praise you, we love you, we believe in you, and we cannot wait to see you. And so we pray you would come quickly. Give us joy, we pray, as we contemplate that future inheritance. And we ask these things in your name. Amen.