Kept By The Power Of God - 1 Peter 1:4-5 Series

1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, 5 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.

Introduction

If you need to know how to have joy in the midst of suffering, you are going to love the book of 1 Peter. That is a major theme in the book, but the topic of suffering is not mentioned the first time until verse 6. Before Peter ever mentions suffering, he first talks about hope, because hope is the only way to have joy in suffering. Hope is when you are in an elevated mood right now because you are anticipating some really great thing that you know for sure is going to happen. And that is what carries us through suffering. If we do not have hope, suffering will overwhelm us, and we will fail at every point of the Christian walk. We will fail at obedience, fail at faithfulness, fail at joy, fail at perseverance, and we will be absolutely manhandled and destroyed by suffering. So before saying anything about suffering, Peter first pushes our attention forward in time to our glorious inheritance.

Secure Inheritance

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope … 4 into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade

The object of our hope is described in a number of ways. First he calls it an inheritance, then he calls it the salvation that’s ready to be revealed in the last time. Later he will call it God’s “wonderful light” (2:9), “heaven” (1:5), “the crown of glory” (5:4), the grace of life (3:7), an inherited blessing (3:9), and “eternal glory” (5:10). And each different phrase gives us added insight into what it is going to be like.

Inheritance

When God describes it as an inheritance, the purpose of that metaphor is to emphasize the fact that it belongs to you. And also that it is an entire estate – a whole, wide variety of things – everything your Father in heaven owns, and there is a share of that that belongs specifically to you. The fact that it is kept in heaven means the inheritance is not just our arrival in heaven. Don’t think of final salvation as just getting to heaven. There is something up there that is being kept for you. Last week when I told you that Christ is the inheritance – I did not mean to imply that the only thing up in heaven will be God. Sometimes people speak of heaven as though there will be no material blessings. We do that because we are so acutely aware of the problem of idolatry with God’s gifts now. So sometimes preachers make it sound like the only things that will exist in heaven are people and God. That is not true. There will be “stuff” in the eternal state, just like in this world – things that God uses to express His goodness and love. The problem of idolatry will be gone forever, but the way God eliminates that as a problem is not by eliminating gifts and blessings and mediated goodness. Rather, He prevents idolatry simply by eliminating all sinful tendencies in our hearts.

For You

So there is stuff waiting for us, and not just for us as a group, but for you in particular. Notice how Peter switches pronouns.

3 he has given us new birth …4 into an inheritance … kept in heaven for you

Instead of sticking with that “us” and saying it in a generic way, Peter really wants the reader to think, “It’s being kept for ME personally.”

John 14:2 In my Father's house are many rooms … I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

It is a place that has been prepared specifically for you. It is your possession. People in the world get lots of gifts from God, but not an inheritance. They get sunshine, rain for their crops, food to eat, all the delights of this wonderful creation – but no inheritance.

As God’s children, we get personalized gifts.

Revelation 2:17 him who overcomes, I will give … a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.