Message In 1peter – Number 2 – Mercy Has Worked An Inheritance For You Reserved In Heaven – 1peter 1:3-4 Series

MESSAGE IN 1PETER – NUMBER 2 – MERCY HAS WORKED AN INHERITANCE FOR YOU RESERVED IN HEAVEN – 1Peter 1:3-4

[1]. WISHES AND EXPECTATIONS

One common feature of human beings is the use of the word “wish.” “I wish I could this or that thing . . .” Allied with this are a number of expectations that accompany daily living. If we had no expectations then we would be the most boring people living just dull lives. Those with expectations look forward in hope to a holiday at some new place; the seeing of a grandchild; the realisation of one’s first marital home, and so on. All these hopes are legitimate but many of them peak, then decline. They are earthly hopes. Sometimes after months of hopeful expectation, the realisation can be but one of anti-climax, hopes dashed, and failure. That can be the nature of earthly hope.

I feel sorry for some people, and a few I have known. Some plan their future then set themselves up in business, hoping to become established and to make a living from their effort and hopes. Then tragedy strikes, be it because of Government laws and restrictions, or ill health, or fraud, climatic disaster or a number of other reasons. The hopes built up over time then crash and are swept away leaving broken people, and even embittered people. If our hope is ONLY in earthly things, we can be devastated.

But there is a hope that transcends any earthly experience. Peter refers to it as a “living hope.” Therefore we must conclude that, by comparison, all earthly hopes are dead hopes. This hope is a spiritual one, a heavenly one, an infused/imparted one, and an eternal one. We are going to look at two verses from 1Peter 1.

{{1Peter 1:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great MERCY has caused us to be born again to a LIVING HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain AN INHERITANCE which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, RESERVED IN HEAVEN for you.”}}

[B]. POINT 1 – LOOKING AT MERCY

There are four points I have given in capital letters in those verses. The first one is MERCY. It is most interesting that Peter selects the word “mercy” as the key to all God’s goodness to us. If it was Paul, I think he would have chosen love or grace and peace, especially the latter one as it was grace that captivated Paul, as God was so gracious to the one who persecuted the church. John of course would have chosen love.

Mercy is related to kindness. It reminds me of the captives of war who pleaded with the enemy not to be killed. They pleaded, “Mercy! Mercy!” from those who had now the authority over them. They wanted kindness to be shown to them.

The first instance of mercy in the Old Testament is in this verse – {{Exodus 25:17 “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide.”}} The Ark of the Covenant with the Mercy Seat represented the presence of God with His people Israel, and where God’s glory was found. It was contained in the Holy of Holies.

The Ark of the Covenant with the Mercy Seat was constructed of acacia wood and gold. The Ark of the Covenant was made of wood completely overlaid with gold inside and out. The Mercy seat was fully of gold. The Types in the bible are very important. Gold stands for divinity as it is the untarnished metal, eternal and pure and precious. The wood stands for what is of earth, the earthly quality.

Every single thing in the Tabernacle spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must do a study again on all that. It is so encouraging. The Ark of the Covenant speaks of the Lord Jesus on earth. The wood represents His humanity and the gold represents His divinity. As the wood was completely enclosed inside and out by the gold, so the Lord was completely the divine One, but with His full humanity enclosed in His Person. Thus Jesus was the God-Man, fully God and fully Man.

The Mercy Seat was fully of gold. The atoning blood of sacrifice was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat and that spoke of the sacrifice. The greatest sacrifice was that of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The Mercy Seat was not constructed of wood but of gold. It had to be gold for no One but God Himself could have atoned for sin. That is all so wonderful. The types in the Tabernacle are all so wonderful.