As we lead up to the Easter Season, I want to talk about one of the biggest paradox’s of the Christian faith. You know what a Paradox is, don’t you? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it is something (such as a situation) that is made up of two opposite things and that seems impossible but is actually true or possible. Examples would be the phrase, “Killing someone with kindness.”
Well, the great paradox in the Christian faith is how we celebrate a Savior’s death. And what made this celebration possible, because that was a day of great agony and suffering, but rather, what happened 3 days later, when Jesus Christ rose again, victorious from the grave, giving us a reason to not fear death and to even look forward to the eternal life that lies in wait on the other side of death. This is why we can have faith at a funeral of a believer. This is why we can approach Easter with joy in our hearts, even as we grieve at what our Savior and Lord went through that we might be saved.
So over the next few weeks, I intend to talk about that great paradox of the Christian faith – having joy over the occasion of death. As we examine what Peter writes about the life and death of Jesus Christ, I hope that this Easter season we as individuals and as members of the body of Christ at Bethel can be reinvigorated and renewed with a fresh dose of joy provided to us by our Savior Jesus Christ! And that is exactly what today’s passage is talking about. Please turn to 1 Peter 1:3-5
1 Peter 1:3-5 – “Following with Joy”
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.
Look at that statement – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
I find it interesting and inspiring how Paul also begins his letters with this. He does the same things in 2 Corinthians 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
And again in Ephesians 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
Do you have people in your life that you almost hate to have conversations with? They’ve been through so much and they just seem to be always in the middle of the struggle, barely keeping their head above water? You almost hate to ask, “How are you doing,” because you’re afraid they’ll be honest!
Face it, we all have troubles. I don’t need to go on a long argument about why you and I have troubles. We do. That’s a fact. Enough said.
Some of us have more troubles at certain times than others. Some of us have different types of troubles. But let me tell you about a man named Peter. His life was full of troubles. He was just a poor fisherman who had his life changed by a carpenter who happened not only to be the Son of Man, but also the Son of God. He never had much money. He traveled all the time. He eventually would be persecuted and then executed. Jesus told Him that his life would be a life of hardship and problems, and it would end in death. In John 21, Jesus says to Peter,
18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go."
19(This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, "Follow me."
And yet Peter had his eyes on the life, not on the death. His eyes were on the prize, the reward, the promise of eternal life with Jesus Christ.
You see, we get our eyes on our problems instead of our blessings sometimes, don’t they? We have people staying home from church on any given Sunday because they’ve stopped focusing in on their blessings and have decided to swim around in problems. But here’s the thing, problems won’t go away! We might get rid of them, only to get new problems again!
Peter doesn’t open his letter by saying, “Well guys, I wish someone would take care of me better.” “Well, I’m getting too old for this but I’m trying to hang in there.” No, as the evangelist that He is, he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” This is a man with great problems, and yet he begins with joy. He’s got the joy joy joy joy down in his heart (where?). He’s got joy unspeakable and full of glory! He can sing “Joyful joyful, we adore thee!”
So let’s take a look at why Peter has something to rejoice about today. What kind of joy does he have? Why does he have it? I’d like to talk about 4 different types and reasons of joy that Peter has. 4 reasons he can say, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” In case anyone here this morning needs more than 1 reason to have joy, I’m going to give you 4!
I. Past Joy
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,
Peter first recounts something that has already been done. And keep in mind, this was fresh in the heart and mind of Peter. This was something that he saw with his own eyes, something that happened during his lifetime. So what did God do?
He caused us, that is, Peter and his readers, which include you and I, to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
A living hope! That sounds like something to be joyful about! Do any of you have any living hopes about anything today? Or do you have dead hope?
A living hope is a hope that something is going to happen. I have a living hope that I’ll see my kids grow up to be Christian leaders. I have a living hope that I’ll be able to pastor my entire life and see lives changed because of what God does. I have a living hope that one day I will see Christ face to face and all of my doubts and fears and failures will melt away.
But often, the hope we have seems dead. Do you know of people who say they have hope, but it is dead? Those who come to the cross of Christ and treat it like a memorial service instead of a celebration? Those who look at the record of their life and treat it like the proverbial Trail of Tears?
Matthew Henry wrote, “A good Christian’s condition is never so bad but he has great reason still to bless God.” We can put our eyes on our circumstances, or we can keep them on God, plain and simple. And in some way, I am much preaching to the choir. You’re here today. Many things could’ve kept each one of you away from worshipping God with fellow believers, or as Hebrews says, it would’ve been easy to neglect the fellowship today. But you’re here. And I hope that is because you are wanting to place and keep your eyes on God, the author of blessings, and not the world, a place that is a mess.
Not to minimize what you’ve been through, the pain and separation you’ve experienced, but let me tell you – add up all your troubles, as immense as they might be, put them in a box, and then look at how much greater the cross is than that box. One single act by Christ was enough to make ALL of the bad things in our lives seem miniscule to the great victory that He gave us at the cross! One single act! So, what are your eyes on today? Your past? Or what Christ did in the past? And guess what, it didn’t stay there, because not only we have past joy, but we also have…
II. Future Joy
4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
Because of what Christ did in the past, we can look forward to an inheritance. Has anyone ever received an inheritance before? I keep hoping I have some rich uncle that everyone has forgotten to mention, but it is looking less and less likely as I get older! Well, we have something better than money and something better than property. We have an inheritance in Christ! We who believe that Christ died and rose again and have accepted the gift of what He did that we might be saved from our sins, look forward to the inheritance of heaven!
I mean, think of all the things we could inherit here on this earth. We might inherit a large amount of money, or perhaps a land or houses. We could inherit some heirloom or jewelry. We might inherit something of great value to those who have gone before us. Some here perhaps wear a wedding ring that was worn by a mother or grandmother-in-law. But this special heavenly inheritance is one of a kind!
It is imperishable – that is, it is immortal. It won’t go away. It will always be, just like the God of that inheritance. Here on earth things corrupt, they perish. At some point money will have lesser value, houses will get into bad shape, jewelry will be outdated.
But this inheritance is imperishable! What you have waiting in heaven for you, well, it’ll wait! You don’t have to worry about it being old and spoiled!
It is undefiled. We recall the high priests of the Old Testament when they made the annual sacrifice for the people of Israel on that Day of Atonement. Well, first they had to sacrifice for their own sins and for their family. Well, the great High Priest who has our inheritance is undefiled – Hebrews 7:26 tells us,
For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
just like the inheritance itself.
It is unfading. Another words, it will be just as beautiful and pleasing to the recipient a million years from now as it was on the day we first walk into that inheritance. That’s what heaven will be like! You won’t have to worry about heaven becoming stale or trite or repetitive. Our inheritance is unfading, without anything that would dull its beauty.
It is kept in heaven for us. Sarah and her siblings have some property that will be an inheritance. It’s a small amount. But we know where it is. We don’t know when we’ll be in receipt of it, or how much it’ll be worth at that time. But it is being kept for Sarah, the daughter of her parents, who have set aside that inheritance specifically for her to do as she pleases. It is the same in heaven. We don’t have to wonder. We have this incorruptible, undefiled, unfading, glorious inheritance which is worth more than anything we can find in this world – Ephesians 1:18 describe it as “riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,” and when the Word of God describes it as such a joyful perfect inheritance, this is worth being happy about! Is anyone here looking forward to the inheritance of heaven, of an eternal place with God our Father, and the perfection that it is? Or are we too tunnel visioned on this poor world – intended to be perfect at creation, but corrupted, defiled, faded, and less than glorious now. Get your eyes on the right inheritance! Because of our past joy, Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection, we have a future joy, a perfect inheritance!
III. Eternal Joy
5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
So our inheritance, because of what happened in the past, perfect and beautiful for all of the future, is eternal. We go from just a description of an inheritance that won’t decay or get worse, to one which will not even know time. It will know no end. Being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Through faith is a phrase that reminds us that it isn’t what we did. We didn’t deserve this inheritance. Sin would write us out of God’s will, and sin will indeed cause many not to receive their inheritance. They will not spend eternity in a perfect and beautiful place with a perfect God. But yet, there’s an inheritance not through merit, not through works, not through being good, not through going to church, but through faith in what Christ did for us, not what we could do or have done for ourselves. In other words, this inheritance is being guarded for those who are believers because they trust in Jesus. That’s the way to receive eternal joy, that’s the way to receive a perfect inheritance – one way and one way online, through faith, and specifically faith in Jesus for salvation.
Are you seeing yet the value of putting your eyes upon the prize of your eternal inheritance rather than what the world would seek to put in front of you? When it is sunny and your life is great and flowers are blooming, keep your eyes upon God! When it is raining and your life is awful and everything is going to you-know-where in a handbasket, keep your eyes upon God. Whether in healing or in hurting, Jesus Christ is what matters!
Let me illustrate with the story of a little boy who was in the middle of a great and terrible struggle -
David, a 2-year old with leukemia, was taken by his mother, to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, to see Dr. John Truman who specializes in treating children with cancer and various blood diseases. Dr. Truman's prognosis was devastating: "He has a 50-50 chance." The countless clinic visits, the blood tests, the intravenous drugs, the fear and pain--the mother's ordeal can be almost as bad as the child's because she must stand by, unable to bear the pain herself. David never cried in the waiting room, and although his friends in the clinic had to hurt him and stick needles in him, he hustled in ahead of his mother with a smile, sure of the welcome he always got. When he was three, David had to have a spinal tap--a painful procedure at any age. It was explained to him that, because he was sick, Dr. Truman had to do something to make him better. "If it hurts, remember it's because he loves you," Deborah said. The procedure was horrendous. It took three nurses to hold David still, while he yelled and sobbed and struggled. When it was almost over, the tiny boy, soaked in sweat and tears, looked up at the doctor and gasped, "Thank you, Dr. Tooman, for my hurting."
You and I have a beautiful and perfect inheritance. How often do we let this world rob us of a joy that is supposed to be unrobbable! How often does our joy corrupt which is supposed to be incorruptible! Our hope fades which is supposed to be unfadable! The world defiles our hope which is supposed to be undefilable! Which brings us back to the first reminder that Peter gives us – considering our past joy – the substitionary death and resurrection of Christ, considering our future joy, an inheritance that won’t spoil, considering our eternal joy, an inheritance that will know no end, we have no choice but to consider the PRESENT joy we have in Jesus Christ!
IV. Present Joy
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
So what are your eyes upon this morning? What has your thoughts occupied? As the song says, “Are you weak and heavy laden? Cumbered with a load of care? I know of too many Christians who have had eternal joy replaced by temporary sorrows. Who have taken their eyes off of something that will never corrupt, be defiled, or fade, and have focused instead on people who will let us down, or situations which will always change, or money which will never last, or a political process which always promises but never fulfills. Where are your eyes this morning? What is your present Joy? Might we respond today to say, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
