Christopher Rich – February 27, 2022

ROOTED| Living Scattered, Not Shattered | 1 Peter

PART II | ROOTED Hope | 1 Peter 1:3-12

Introduction | We need Hope, We have Hope. 

Good morning! Welcome to Mercy Fellowship where we are Saved by Jesus Work, Changed by Jesus’ Grace, and Living on Jesus’s Mission. This week we are beginning a new series in 1 Peter called ROOTED: Living Scattered, Not Shattered. 

Our recent lives and cultural moments have been characterized by personal trials, political unrest, cultural upheaval, health concerns, relational turmoil, economic uncertainty, and varying degrees of individual and corporate trauma. What many in our society believed was a time of relative peace and prosperity has been uprooted as faith in our institutions, and even our neighbors, has been shattered and replaced with great fear, distrust, and division. This has caused us to be highly reactive, often discouraged, and at times experiencing crushing despair. The strength and stability of what we have been rooted in is revealed in times of great trial, suffering, or difficulty. Many of us are realizing our roots are too shallow and weak to sustain us in the storms of life. We need to be rooted in something deeper and more life giving than ourselves and our circumstances. We need to be rooted in a life that flows from the life giver, we need a real living hope beyond what we see and have now. We need good news greater than our current events. We need to be rooted in what is real, true, and eternal. 

When we are rooted in the transcendent, we are not reactive to the temporary.

We can be ROOTED because Christ is IN US! In Jesus Christ we have a hope, identity, purpose, and destiny that is both timely and transcendent. If we are going to survive and thrive, we need to be deeply rooted to remain both faithful and fruitful in the face of significant adversity. We multiply Grace & Peace rooted where there is the promise of new life. Who cares if you’re elect if you’re always going to be in exile. We need hope that our time in exile will end not what greater suffering or even a neutral after life, or nihilistic nothing but a return to where we were always meant to belong and a reunion with who we were always meant to be with.  We have looked at who we are IN Christ, today we will see where we ae going with Christ. Hope is the anticipation of a better future than our current reality. We desire better futures because our present does not satisfy. Without hope we can easily fall into despair, especially in difficulty. When we are rooted in a living hope it gives us real joy and greater endurance in all situations. In this section, Peter helps the people of God ( who have a ROOTED Identity, as elect exiles, loved, empowered, led by the trinity) understand where they are in the story of God (ROOTED Hope) He is going to start with the end (destination) in mind, to inform how the engage with their present, while being encouraged by God’s past Faithfulness.  

PART I | Future Hope | 1 Peter 1:3-5

1 Peter 1:3-5 |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. 

Hope in New Life & Forever Life (1:3-5)- FUTURE HOPE, for Former Sinners. Sin separates us from God, ourselves, and others. In sin we are not “elect exiles” we are just exiles from the garden. We are not citizens of heaven at peace with God, we are estranged rebels in conflict with God. We are not recipients/conduits of grace, we are vessels of wrath. Because of sin we are spiritually dead and without eternal hope.

Born Again by Mercy – But God is rich in mercy for us. He gives us a spiritual rebirth into new life with the real hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus’ death and resurrection in the past foreshadow our hope for an eternal inheritance in God’s kingdom. We have and see Hope ROOTED in the character of God, here clearly displayed in Jesus Christ! We have both an identity and a hope we didn’t earn. God has such mercy that HE has caused a present better than our past and far better than our certain future without Him in our sin. He has such great mercy because He meted out great Justice on Jesus. So there is hope for a way out of the Justice we deserve for our sin. Without Jesus there is NO hope because if hope is the anticipation of a better future, then you cannot have that without salvation for your sin. This day, or maybe a thousand more you have in this life is as good as it can possibly get. After your death the only expectation is not forever in paradise, but under the just wrath of God for sin. That is not good news, but God is gracious. In Jesus, our failure doesn’t define our future destiny.  More than simply saving us from the consequences of sin, He has done exceedingly more to give us hope now. 

We have Hope that we have been made new.  We are born again, born from above. We have a new life with God, with ourselves, a new identity.  One where we no longer are our old selves, we are made new. The hope we have in being made new is that we don’t have to fear who we once were because they’re gone. We don’t have to be concerned that our efforts in growth are in vain because we are now in communion with God who gives us and grants us growth and we have hope that He who began a work will finish it in us. So our hope in our own growth or being a slave to our own brokenness can replaced with Hope in Him. 

Jesus is our living hope, so we have a hope that is active.  The source of our hope is not in our circumstances it is in the person of Jesus. We don’t have slain hope dead and buried. We have risen hope living and active.  That means there is never a time that Hope is dead or that Hope is not working. This means when even with we think hope is distant, it is in fact present, and can be a comfort to us. It means when we need hope or desire hope we can call out for it knowing Jesus will answer. Jesus gives us hope in our future destiny.  

Hope for an inheritance. This is another allusion to the Old Testament People of God. When they were brought of Egypt, lead and preserved into a Promised Land. The land was their inheritance. It wasn’t wealthy to spend it was a place to dwell, yes a place to prosper to experience joy, to belong, to worship a legacy to receive and pass on. But the people of God were like us, were unfaithful. The Kingdom died, the people take to exile, the land defiled by sin, the glory of the kingdom peaked then faded. So at points in the story it was a better future than the past, but at other points it was a (not always) so dissent back into slavery. There isn’t hope if things are going to get better only to get worse again. We need a greater hope.   Born again, recipients of mercy and grace, in Christ we have a promised Future inheritance that is better. 

Imperishable - It will never die it is not capable of ending. There is not worries of another kingdom coming in threating to kill steal or destroy.  In that future, we will finally exhale and tears and fears will be no more. 

Undefiled – This kingdom has no sin It is a place of purity. Where people made clean by God will remain clean for God. The impacts of sin are memories long forgotten, the potential for sin is zero, purity is infinite. 

Unfading – This kingdom is glorious, radiant, beautiful. It doesn’t get better, peak, fade, and decline. It only gets better and better. Meaning it is a kingdom of eternal hope of a better and better future. 

Secured by God - This a hope of a future with God that is protected by God. It is safe, it cannot be lost, it is secure. It means your final destination is an eternity with God as His son or daughter. This gives us the simple truth that the best is not now but that the best is yet to come. That is good news for tomorrow, what about today? 

PART II | Present Hope | 1 Peter 1:6-7

1 Peter 1:6-7 | 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. 

Joy in trials – As much as Peter has a ROOTED LIVING Hope of the Future inheritance, being born again, he is deeply rooted in the reality of our present experience. The reason we long for better is the “less than” dissatisfaction and at times the disasters we currently face. We are going to face trials causing great grief. 

Emotional Hope – Grieved – Is referring to the emotional response to the trials faced. This is so important in engaging with hope is first acknowledging and being realistic about the pain suffered, the emotions felt. We are not to be ruled by our emotions, but we are also not to be numb or disassociated from them. They are barometer of pain and pleasure. They are absolutely part of the reactions to what we are or will experience. If we ignore them, they don’t go away they. When we push them down, they will come out in other areas usually in ways that are unhealthy for us or others. Grief, like other emotions, needs to be named, expressed, experienced, and processed. When there is no hope there isn’t an opportunity to move on from grief because a loss or pain just is. When there is a real living hope, grief can be processed and move to other emotions. This process helps refine and reforming us in ways the lead to greater resiliency and ultimately rejoicing.  

Light & Momentary; Heavy eternal Glory – This section is similar to what Paul tells the Corinthian church in 2 Cor 4. That “light and momentary affliction is preparing us for future weight of glory. Here it is the trials that act as refining fire. Fire is hot, a purposeless fire just brings destruction  and devastation scaring the land (or skin). But a refining fire is purposeful. It’s is a fire that is under control from the artesian who is using it to craft something beautiful from something raw. It is purifying removing what is defiled and to reveal what is beautiful and glorious.  When we are suffering, we don’t think it’s light and momentary. When we are in, it doesn’t seem like “a little while”, it’s intense and seemingly unending and we think senseless. That is what we perceive. Here is what is true. It’s not senseless it is purposeful and productive because it’s preparing us to both receive AND carry and eternal “weight of glory” that isn’t comparable when you consider its greatness. It is glory and life eclipse distress and affliction they are seen as light and momentary. This doesn’t minimize or marginalize the pain it maximizes how great the glory is that dwarfs our despair. For the glory to have “weight” means its substantial, valuable, and enduring. We have hope even in suffering when we can see and know there will be an end. While it can feel like a crushing weight and senseless suffering, it is purposeful and temporary. What can we see? Affliction, death, decay, while discouraging we are not defeated because So much of the pain is seen and felt but it will end. It will not last forever, joy and glory does. 

Hope for endurance.  We’re going to face trials and those can even cause us great grief (Hey should be happy it’s trial time!) Hope for our endurance not because of our faithfulness and character but because of His. Hope implies patience, because you have to wait for it to be realized. Hope is not circumstantial but is based on a belief about the future, we can have hope even when our experiences tell us we shouldn’t have any. 

Hope for refinement. If there is something I hate more than waiting, it’s the pain of refinement. Sometimes the trials are to refine you produce in you the change God has promised to bring. Hope implies patience because we have to wait for the better future to be realized. We want change, but often we do not want what produces change. Sometimes trials refine us to produce the change God has promised to bring. We can have hope as we are being refined, even in “fire”, that it can be for the purposes of producing a better future. 

PART III | Faithful Hope | 1 Peter 1:8-9 

1 Peter 1:8-9 | 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.

Hope in His Return (1:8-9) – Faith Unseen – Our belief in Jesus risen and returning gives us joy now. Even when we feel distant and disconnected. Peter is encouraging and empathic to the churches who feel discouraged. 

Peter has seen Jesus, Peter has followed Jesus, learned from Jesus, was witness to His miracles, His Death AND resurrection. Seeing His Ascension into Heaven. He can call them Elect Exiles because he is going through the already (been with Jesus) and the Not yet (being with Jesus forever) He is a Now person living with great adversity who, longs for Jesus return and the manifestation of a greater victory. He has been living as an elect exile as well. Chosen by Jesus but disconnect from him in a foreign land living on mission for Jesus. 

Faith – Hebrews 11:1 | Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

This  conviction, this belief is not an intellectual assent (I believe Jesus existed/exists) it a laying down and resting deeply in who Jesus is, what He has done, what He is doing in you, for you, through you as we wait (and engage) in the world hoping for the world to come.  What are we looking forward to? A new city with no more sin and suffering and abundant life with God and His people. Our faith is in an unseen Jesus, not an unknown outcome. The outcome of faith in Jesus is the salvation of our souls and a secured eternity. We have hope in Jesus Return that what is promise will be possessed. Our longing will end, our striving will cease.

PART IV | Hope Promised | 1 Peter 1:10-12

1 Peter 1:10-12 |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.

Hope Promised (1:10-12) – Past is Prologue – We can have a rooted hope for the future in the present that is rooted in what has already happened in the past. It is a faith that in a Jesus that is useen but it is not a blind faith or one that is not rooted in the rich soil of God’s forever story. Just like the OT Saints waited for an unseen Jesus we follow an unseen Jesus. The difference is they had anticipation of a Hope Promised, and we have the affirmation of Hope arrived and realized. We can look back to God’s past faithfulness we can see suffering was promised to Christ (Isaiah) but glory was also. We are on the other side of the cross and resurrection. Generations before Jesus arrival in history longed for the hope we have in Christ. They had promises of His suffering, we have assurance of His future glory. They looked forward to Jesus, we have Jesus revealed in History, AND look forward to His return. This is where we are located in this great story. 

There is a spiritual reality of the great story unfolding yes in history but also spiritually. Angels are watching with great anticipation at what God has promised being accomplished and finally coming to consummation. 

Demons and evil are also watching and as they see God continue to be good a faithful to His People and victorious through His Son Jesus they quake inwardly but strike out in the world and at God’s people as a defeated enemy by one still attempting to bring violence. We are assured in Christ there is Victory in the Big Story and our smaller stories. Where are you? Where is you hope? Jesus says in Luke 15:10 Angels in  Heaven rejoice when one sinner repents. This is your day. We take communion in remembrance of what Jesus has done to secure a hope for the promise of Jesus return. We have a ROOTED Hope when we Trust Jesus!