The Living hope of chosen exiles
Passage: 1 Peter 1﹕1-12
Big Idea: We are chosen exiles, given a new birth in the risen Christ, kept by the power of God, and by the Holy Spirit receiving salvation through gospel preachers
1. Chosen exiles have a living hope in the risen Christ (1:1-4)
2. Chosen exiles are kept joyfully safe by the power of God (1:5-9)
3. Chosen exiles are saved through Spirit-sent Gospel preachers (1:10-12)
Happy Chinese New Year! 祝大家新年快乐!
Chinese New Year is a time for families to get together.
One thing that adults often say to children is, “I haven’t seen you in ages! You’ve grown so tall”.
Has someone ever said that to you in Chinese New Year?
And then the next question might be about your studies and what you want to be when you grow up.
When I was a kid, I didn’t think that far ahead; I was just thinking about how what to do with the red packet I just received.
Should I give it to my Mum or not? Yes, it’s always a yes, because I might lose it.
Has anyone asked you about what you want to be when you grow up recently?
For those of us who are younger, we might have hopes of becoming someone important or famous.
Or you might dream of having a healthy family of your own.
But as we grow older, we’ll learn that not all hopes are realised, and not all dreams come true.
There will be times when we hope for something, and even work hard at it, but not get it in the end.
Even worse, there might be times when we work hard and sacrifice a lot, and actually get what we had always hoped for, but it turned out to be a disappointment.
What we hoped for wasn’t what it seemed.
How do we have a hope that won’t let us down?
That’s what we’ll be looking at as we begin our Vision sermon series over the next three weeks.
If you have your Bible there, please open up to 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning from verse 1.
We’ll see three things:
1. Chosen exiles have a living hope in the risen Christ (1:1-4)
2. Chosen exiles are kept joyfully safe by the power of God (1:5-9)
3. Chosen exiles are saved through Spirit-sent Gospel preachers (1:10-12)
Before we look into it, let’s pray,
“Father, by your Spirit, let your word pierce our hearts so that it’ll take root and grow, 30, 60, 100 times what was sown today, so that there will be praise, glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen.”
1. Chosen exiles have a living hope in the risen Christ (1:1-4)
Please open your Bible with me to 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning from verse 1, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those chosen, living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen”
The apostle Peter writes to Christians scattered across world as he knew it.
He calls these Christians, chosen ones, yet exiles.
To be chosen means to belong to someone or something special, that the chosen person has a unique identity and purpose.
To be an exile, however, means not belonging to a group but to be treated as an outsider, a nobody.
That’s the experience of many displaced people in our world today.
Today, there is over 122 million displaced people.
A displaced person is someone who doesn’t have a home, or a place they can call their own.
They might be refugees fleeing from their home land, or they might be people who are in their homeland but internal conflicts had forced them to constantly move for their own safety.
These are exiles in their own land.
To be chosen is to belong, to be an exile is to not belong.
Peter call Christians both: We are chosen exiles, both precious and rejected at the same time.
We’re exiles because we’re rejected by the world and treated as outsiders.
Jesus himself has said his disciples are not of the world, just as he is not of the world.
We don’t belong to the world.
The world rejects Christians, because it has rejected Jesus.
And yet, Christians are chosen, precious to God.
Look with me at verse 2, Christians are chosen, “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ.”
It’s only a short phrase, but it’s so good: we’re chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
God chose us before we were even born!
God knew us, and like any good father would, planned and invested so much in us in order for us to know him, to relate to him, even before we were born.
In the musical, Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton just became a young father, and he has this beautiful line for his son, “I’ll do whatever it takes (even if I make a million mistakes). I'll make the world safe and sound for you.”
God the Father has chosen us and has committed himself to loving us, relating to us, protecting us, and doing whatever it takes to make us holy for him.
And unlike Hamilton, God doesn’t make mistakes!
God sends His Spirit, the Holy Spirit to sanctify us, that is, to cleanse us, and make us holy for God.
The Holy Spirit transforms us from creatures of darkness to sons and daughters of light, from unrepentant sinners to forgiven saints.
He makes us holy and beautiful in God’s sight so that we will obey Jesus.
We don’t obey Jesus in order to be saved.
No, God saved us, sanctified us, in order for us to obey Jesus.
Here’s the thing: God doesn’t make disobedient Christians.
There aren’t two classes of Christians - one obedient and the other disobedient.
God made just one class of Christians - Christians who are made to obey Jesus.
This doesn’t mean that Christians are perfect in our obedience, but we learn to walk in obedience and we’ll repent and ask for forgiveness when we sin.
Christians are sprinkled with his blood, which Jesus has shed on the cross for those who trust in Jesus.
Christians are identified with the blood of Jesus; it’s by Jesus alone that we’re saved.
Peter’s prayer for these chosen exiles is that grace and peace be multiplied to them, especially in light of what God has done for them.
He continues in verse 3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hoped through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Here the Bible emphasises again that Christians are but recipients of God’s great mercy.
Our salvation is not something we can earn or do ourselves; it’s a gift from God.
It’s by his great mercy that God gives us a new birth into a living hope.
We can’t make ourselves born - it’s completely outside of our abilities or control.
In the same way, we can’t make ourselves born; only God can give us a new birth into this living hope.
And this, indeed is a living hope; it’s a hope that’s alive!
Our hope is founded upon this one singular event in history: Jesus rose from the dead.
As long as God lives, and God lives forever, we have this living hope.
That’s how sure we can be of our hope in Jesus.
Someone once said, ‘It’s a living hope because it can no more pass away than can the living God.’
Look with me at verse 4, “and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.”
Unlike anything in this world, Christians have this hope of receiving an inheritance that’s not capable of decay or depreciation.
It’s a hope that will not and cannot disappoint.
It’s a living hope - it won’t die, it will be as good as it’ll ever be, forever.
That’s what’s God promises us! That’s our great hope!
I read an article recently about a phenomenon known as Hope Fatigue.
Hope fatigue is when you’re so worried and anxious about things beyond your control that you start to feel apathetic and pessimistic.
Those with hope fatigue might have had hope once, but it faded.
In the article, it mentioned that many young adults are experiencing hope fatigue.
They might had failed to enter the college they applied for.
They might have had a lot of job interviews but had no offers.
They might have had their hearts repeatedly broken in relationships.
And so, their hope in the world, in the future, is eroded.
They experience hope fatigue and fall into anxiety and depression.
Friends, what kind of world are we passing to our children?
Do they have a better future to look forward to?
If we point them to place their hopes and dreams only in the things of this world, whether it be romantic love, or a secure job or a loving home,
they will be disappointed.
As good as these things are, they have an expiry date; they won’t bring true satisfaction.
Instead, we must point them to Jesus Christ, in whom alone is the true and living hope.
We can be certain of this hope, because the One who gives this hope doesn’t give us up.
In Jesus, we have a God who would rather die than to live without us.
Not only did Jesus die, but he’s risen from the dead to show us that our hope can never die and there’s a future who trusts in him.
Young adults need this hope, old adults need this hope, and little children need this hope too.
That’s why in Checkpoint 6 of our Church’s vision, we want to see the KOGKids ministry and the KOG Youth ministry thrive.
We want to see thee classrooms filled with KOGKids and a hall filled with KOGYouths.
We want them to have a real and living hope, a hope not based on what’s perishable but on what’s imperishable.
A hope that has no expiry date.
This is the living Hope we have in Jesus.
We can trust God with his promises… but can we be trusted?
Can we last the distance?
Even if we believe that God doesn’t fail, we know that we can’t say the same about ourselves.
Will we stay faithful to God until the end?
2. Chosen exiles are kept joyfully safe by the power of God (1:5-9)
i. Our God is so good, and so faithful, that not only will he promise us living hope; he’ll also keep us safe until the last day so that we will receive what he’s promised us.
Look with me at verse 5, “You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”
By God’s great power, Jesus rose from the dead, and by that same power, God will keep us until the very end.
We have an inheritance that’s completely secure because God keeps it safe.
We can be completely sure that we will receive God’s inheritance because God keeps us safe.
Isn’t it good to know that it’s God himself who keeps us safe?
A few weeks ago, my family, along with Peter’s family, went to CMS Summer School.
I learnt a lot things, but one prayer in particular stood out:
It’s a prayer from Yorkshire farmers:
O Lord, keep me kept.
It’s a simple, humble prayer to ask God to keep us safe in him.
When we’re tempted to doubt him in times of trials, when we’re pressured to worship something or someone else above him, when we feel hopeless, pray this prayer, “O Lord, keep me kept.”
As the old hymn reminds us,
Prone to wander, Lord I feel itProne to leave the God I love
Here's my heart Lord, take and seal itSeal it for Thy courts above
The one who will receive God’s inheritance in the end are the humble Christians who recognise their weaknesses but rely on God to take them through.
If you are a Christian, you will suffer for Christ.
If you follow Jesus, trouble will come your way - it’s a promise.
What do we do when troubles come because we follow Jesus and our weaknesses are exposed?
Don’t just grin and bear it, pretending everything is fine.
Don’t be miserably accept it as your fate either.
Look with me at verse 6, “You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials.”
When Christian face trials, we rejoice even when we grieve.
This sounds like another contradiction.
The trial that the Apostle Peter is describing here is suffering that leads to sobbing
How can we rejoice when we sob?
There are four things this verse reminds us even as we suffer.
Firstly, trials are short-lived; unlike our living hope suffering has an expiry date.
It will be over soon.
Second, trials are allowed by God only if it’s necessary; God doesn’t give us any unnecessary suffering
God won’t allow us to suffer one second more than what’s necessary.
Third, trials are varied; they might make you depressed one day, anxious on the next day, and hopeless on day three.
And fourth, God allows these trials to come to refine us.
Look with me at verse 7, “so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Amy Carmichael was a Christian missionary who was born in Ireland but spent 55 years as a missionary in India.
She helped to look after many girls and young women, some of whom were rescued from being exploited.
She shared this story in her book Gold Cord,
“We visited a goldsmith who refined gold using an ancient Eastern method. He sat beside a charcoal fire, never leaving his crucible.
He put a mixture of salt, tamarind fruit, and burnt brick dust in the crucible, along with the gold.
The mixture worked on the gold, and the fire consumed it.
The goldsmith then lifted the gold, cooled it, rubbed it between his fingers, and put it back in the crucible with a new mixture, increasing the fire’s heat each time. “How do you know when the gold is purified?” we asked.
He replied, “When I can see my face in the liquid gold, it’s pure.”
You can read the story in today’s companion booklet.
That’s what trials do; trials test the character of our faith in God, much like how a refiner test the gold.
Just as the gold refiner knows that the gold is ready when he see his face, our God, the soul refiner, knows that we’re ready when he sees Jesus’ face in us.
That time will come on that very last day, when Jesus comes back for us.
Until then, we will face trials.
As we face trials, false faiths will be exposed.
If that’s what we see in us, then we must repent and turn back to God.
If we face trials and we learn to trust God even more, then we’ll grow even stronger in our faith.
The fires of trials both burns and refines; it will burn those with false faith and refine those with genuine faith.
Those with genuine faith will be joyful grievers, joyfully trusting God even as they suffer grief through their trials.
For those who have genuine faith will flee to Jesus, the one they love and trust.
Look with me at verses 8-9, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
Those who love Jesus will trust him and flee to him in times of trials.
And as they run to him, they will be filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.
They should’ve been sad, they should’ve been miserable, they should’ve been grumbling.
But they’re genuinely filled with joy that can’t be expressed adequately with words.
They have this joy because they are receiving the goal of their faith, the salvation of their souls.
Their inexpressible and glorious joy is a glimpse of the salvation that’s theirs in heaven.
Here’s another memorable example from CMS Summer School.
A very sick patient was about to die in the hospital.
She had days, maybe only hours left.
Also, she was as Christian.
When you’re in a hospital, different medical personnel come and leave comments on their charts so that other medical personnel will know how the patient is going.
Here’s the comment a nurse wrote on the chart, “Inappropriately happy”.
I have no doubt the Christian sister was in pain, but she was also inappropriately happy because she was going to see Jesus soon.
How good it is to have this glorious and inexpressible joy!
This is a joy’s ours if we love and trust Jesus.
While it will be wonderful to have this joy when we suffer through trials, I hope that we will have this joy always!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people come into our Church and they are greeted by people filled with genuine, inexpressible joy?
That’s what we want to do in check point 5.
We want to meet new people within two minutes of coming to Church and meeting the minister for a meal within three weeks of coming to Church.
It’s great to see that many people are so welcoming at Church already.
Don’t leave the welcoming just for the welcome team.
Go ahead and welcome people.
Be happy, not in a weird way, but just genuinely happy because you truly believe that God is refining you in whatever situation you might find yourself in.
How do we have a hope that won’t let us down?
We come to Jesus, for it’s only in Jesus that we have this living hope.
It’s a hope that He gives to Chosen exiles; rejected by the world by chosen and foreknown by God.
It’s a hope that he gives to joyful grievers, who know that that our comes from a loving heavenly father refines us to making us holy.
It’s a hope that leads to trust in Jesus and love for Jesus.
In a world that has become fatigued by false hope, show the true, living hope of the gospel as you love and trust in Jesus.
If you’ve been paying attention, you know that there are three more verses to go.
I’ll share the last point when we come back for the commencement service!
Friends, remember, we are chosen exiles, given a new birth in the risen Christ and kept by the power of God.
Here are two questions for us to reflect on as we have the Holy Communion and morning tea afterwards:
1. “Talking about the hope of heaven is impractical; let’s talk about what we can build and invest instead”. How does 1 Peter 1:1-4 help us respond to statements like this?
2. How does the fact that God allow temporary sufferings only when necessary, help us face trials?
Friends, we are chosen exiles, given a new birth in the risen Christ and kept by the power of God.
Let’s come before our Lord with thanks in prayer, “Father, thank you for the living hope you give us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Thank you for refining us to make us holy. Please continue to work by your Holy Spirit to make us holy. O Lord, keep us kept, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.”