Sermon for Trinity Six – Sunday July 24, 2022
Calvary/Marquette ● Soli Deo Gloria

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

1 Peter 1:3-9 EHV
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4into an inheritance that is undying, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5Through faith you are being protected by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of time.

6Because of this you rejoice very much, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various kinds of trials 7so that the proven character of your faith—which is more valuable than gold, which passes away even though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

8Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him now, yet by believing in him, you are filled with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. ***

In the Name of Jesus, the Christ,
Dear Fellow Redeemed in His Blood –

It can be easy to get down and become depressed for a variety of reasons.

 Economic – with rising inflation, costs rise but wages and income remain the same. Goods and services cost more and, in many cases, we get less! The stock market is like a roller coaster and hard-earned nest eggs blow away like leaves in the wind. We look for help but all we get is political double-speak from wealthy politicians.
 Religious – when we look at our little congregation, we can’t help but notice that it shrinks every year. Our members are in and out of the hospital and nursing facilities. Then there are the sheep who seem intent on separating themselves from Christ by staying away from worship. We advertise and share the Good News of the Savior, but it seems that few people have time or feel a need for a relationship with God. Things that God declares to be rotten are approved of and even promoted and if we don’t agree – we are the problem!

The future can seem bleak. It could be worse.

The people to whom the Apostle Peter was directed to write were enduring persecution and all manner of trouble. They needed encouragement...they needed Heavenly Optimism in a Depressing World. We also need a pick-me-up. We find just that in the words before us from the First Epistle of Peter.

We are reminded that we possess a living hope and a perfect inheritance. We are being protected and preserved for a complete and total rescue. In fact, even the trials that we endure are for our good, serving to remove weakness and distraction so that faith in Christ may reach its ultimate goal.

May God the Holy Spirit lift our hearts and minds and put a smile back on our faces in these depressing times...through these words. Amen.

+++++++

Do you know anyone who always has a bubbly and optimistic personality? Do you know anyone who always seems happy and joyful?

It’s annoying, isn’t it? It seems fake, like someone is putting on a show. It’s especially annoying when we are down and just wanting to wallow in our troubles. I just want to say: “Wipe that smile off your face and go somewhere else. I want to sit and stew right now.”

After reminding the scattered islands of believers in five Roman provinces that God had chosen them to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit and forgiven in the blood of Jesus, the grizzled fisherman called Peter launches off into a song of praise...to encourage depressed Christians of every age. In fact, verses 3-9, this entire section is a single sentence, even though we will take it a piece at a time:

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

So, you want to mope in the corner and feel sorry for yourselves, eh? Peter says, “Well, fine. But while you sit there and stew, let me remind you about your living hope.”

It’s true that you were born in the image of Adam, a sinner. It’s true that you commit sin each and every day – if not in action, then in your mind or with your mouth.
Take a second to review your week. Everything was perfect and you were a sinless ray of bright sunshine, right? Whenever you got down you took the matter to the Savior in prayer, right? When you were confronted with something evil, you closed your eyes and reopened your Bible, right?

Me neither. “I thought you were supposed to help, Pastor.”

God took every sinful action, every evil thought and every sinful word...and instead of holding us responsible...He had mercy on us. He laid our sins and the punishment of eternal death on His Son and sent him to the cross and grave to pay the debt. On the third day the golden receipt was given when Christ rose from the dead.

Our hope for the present and the future is a living hope because it rests on a living Jesus, not a dead one. So, though you were born spiritually dead in sins, God caused you to be born through baptism, which is powered by Jesus’ Resurrection (cf. 1 Peter 3:21) from the dead.

What’s more – God has promised you an inheritance that doesn’t lose value when the stock market falls –

4into an inheritance that is undying, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5Through faith you are being protected by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of time.

If you are ever in my office downstairs, take a moment to look the picture of Christ on the Cross on the wall. It’s the picture with the old, tarnished and crumbling frame. It was on the wall in my grandparent’s parlor. It’s not an inheritance from them, but it serves to remind us of the nature of earthly inheritances...they age, they break down and fall apart.

The inheritance that God has promised us is described here with three words: “undying, undefiled, and unfading.”

It is undying or incorruptible. Our inheritance in Christ is not subject to decay or death, it will be as perfectly beautiful on the first day as on the 10,000th day.

It is undefiled. Our inheritance in Christ is untainted by sin, perfect and pure in every way.

It is unfading. Our inheritance will always retain its beautiful character, and will never fade like a cut flower.

Our inheritance doesn’t only have these qualities, it has been preserved in heaven. Nothing and no one in this world can take our inheritance or cause its value to be degraded. Stock markets can crash, buildings burn, banks fail, businesses fall and even families disappoint...but our inheritance in Christ is pristine and unchanging because it’s based on Christ’s Resurrection and preserved in heaven.

Thus, our hope is constant and unchanging despite the fact that we live in a shifting and ever-changing world.

It isn’t just that our inheritance is perfect and preserved in heaven...God also is working to preserve and protect us until we finally come to receive that inheritance. God keeps us in faith through His Word. He sees to it that we have access to His Word and opportunity to read it and hear it preached.

God wants us to come safely to that day when we obtain our salvation fully and can savor it. This is the living hope into which we have been born again. It’s because of this living hope, perfect and pure, that we may look upon the troubles and trials in our lives differently.

When we lose touch with God’s Word then we lose focus and perspective. When we lose focus and perspective, we can be misled by the world and its attitudes.

“Hey, not me pastor. I am a rock. When Satan says, ‘You can’t withstand the storm, I say I am the storm.’” But...this scripture says nothing about YOUR STRENGTH or POWER. It talks about what God has promised you and that He by His power promises to protect you until you receive what He has promised!

The sad truth is that we are misled. We have swallowed this world’s philosophical garbage. How so?

 We are misled into thinking of death as the great evil...when the truth is that because of Jesus’ Resurrection it is merely the door through which we enter eternal life.
 We think that any trouble or trial or discomfort is a bad thing.

So, listen then to what the Spirit of God says about troubles, trials and temptations and how they can serve you:

6Because of this you rejoice very much, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various kinds of trials 7so that the proven character of your faith—
which is more valuable than gold, which passes away even though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

None of us actively seeks stress, trouble or anxiety. In fact, we do all we can to avoid these things! Nevertheless, no matter how hard we try to avoid them, stress, trouble and anxiety come to us in a variety of ways. They may come from outside of us, through other people. They may come from within us. Even if we were to hide away in a basement corner or live alone in the wilderness separated from all human contact...we would still find various trials.

Why? Well, look around – you are a child of God and Satan has his sights set upon you. Do you really think that if you confess Christ, that Satan and the world are going to give you a free pass? Don’t be deceived! The Lord Jesus warns us that in this world we will have tribulation (cf. John 16:33). The Apostle Paul warned Timothy (2 Timothy 3:12):

“...all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”

Doesn’t God promise to protect me from these things? He does when it would be harmful to your faith.

But this Scripture says that God may allow trial to come upon you -- with two important qualifiers. If trials come, they will endure only 1) ‘for a little while’, and 2) only ‘if necessary’ and beneficial for us to strengthen or purify our faith. The purifying of our faith is here compared to the purifying of gold.

When gold is extracted from the earth it is often attached to a variety of other minerals. A gold nugget is likely to be 70-90% actual gold. In order to separate the gold from other minerals it is subjected to fire and high heat, perhaps as high as 1,100 degrees...and the gold (as pure as 99.99%) sinks to the bottom.

When God allows stress, trouble and trial to come upon us, His purpose is to separate from our lives things of lesser value, like fire separates base minerals from gold. The result is that we our faith clings to Christ alone, and in the process is made stronger. When Jesus returns that faith will serve to praise, glorify and honor Him. We will struggle in this world – because we are citizens of heaven. It’s not fun for us when it happens, but God’s purpose in trial and trouble is to make us stronger by teaching us to cling to Jesus alone.
Faith that clings to Christ...is, in the end, more precious than gold, even at 99.99% pure! This precious faith concerns itself with someone we have not and do not see – and with the final goal of heaven.

8Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him now, yet by believing in him, you are filled with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. ***

Simon the Son of John saw Jesus of Nazareth with his own eyes...and was led to love Him. He believed in Him...though He denied Him. He was there when Thomas the Twin declared that the only way he would believe that Jesus had risen from the dead was if he saw him with his own eyes and put his finger in his wounds.

Peter was there when Jesus rebuked Thomas for his unbelief. Jesus said to Thomas (John 20:29):

“Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

So, seeing Jesus doesn’t result in eternal life...but trusting in Him and what He has done...does. This is the ultimate goal of faith and the reason why God allows tests to try our faith so that we reach the ultimate goal, the eternal rescue of our souls.

When you want to CRY because of your troubles...Praise God for the Living Hope that is yours through Jesus’ Resurrection. When you want to SULK...remember that God’s ultimate plan in allowing trials to come upon you is your soul’s salvation.

Amen!