Getting The Attention Of Angels Series

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NORTH PINE BAPTIST CHURCH

Sunday 6th July 2025

1 Peter 1:3-12

“Getting The Attention of Angels”

We saw last week, when we looked at the first two verses of 1 Peter, that Peter has written his letters to the elect foreigners

… elect foreigners are disciples of Jesus who now have a totally different worldview to those who don’t know Jesus.

… elect foreigners are those who are scattered among the provinces – and all the nations and peoples and languages right through history.

Peter writes to these elect foreigners who are scattered among the provinces so that they can be equipped to stand firm in a world that is tempting them to just fit in.

Which is not easy to do.

It isn’t easy to avoid the temptation to not just fit in.

It isn’t easy to know that such a response to the world will bring suffering and persecution.

It isn’t easy to stand firm on the declaration that Jesus is the only way of salvation.

It isn’t easy and keep doing this in the face of calls for “tolerance”, and “acceptance”, and “let’s all agree that we all have different truths”.

Peter knows it isn’t easy. And we may even find ourselves asking, “why?” Why would we want to put ourselves through such difficulties?

Peter gives us some of the reasons why in 1 Peter 1:3-12

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. This inheritance is 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.

6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.

8 Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

Why would you want to choose to have a worldview which you know will put you in the firing line?

It is a worldview that gives us a new birth into a living hope.

The word used by Peter is a word that relates to the concept of adoption. When a child was a adopted their connection with their biological parents comes to a close … and through their “new birth” they are given new parents – and also a new family.

That is what God the Father gives us through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

A new family.

A new way of life.

A new future.

A spiritual rebirth that replaces spiritual death with spiritual life.

It’s the very reason we are no longer citizens of this world. For we are no longer tied by a spiritual relationship to the world.

The spiritual DNA of Jesus, becomes our spiritual DNA.

And the outcome of this transformation is a living hope.

In our day and age hope is a word that comes with inbuilt uncertainty.

I hope a get a job.

I hope I passed my test.

In the NT hope is much more positive. It is an expression of expectation that the promise is already fulfilled.

The living hope is the certain and guaranteed expectation that the resurrection of Jesus has secured our resurrection. The resurrection is not just an event in history—it’s the power that gives life to our hope today. Because Jesus conquered death, we too are promised life beyond the grave, purpose in the present, and confidence in God's promises.

Our future life … even after we have died … is secured.