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)
Whenever we begin a significant chapter in our lives, one of the trickiest things to manage is expectation.
When couples asked us to give them advice for marriage, we always talk about having a realistic expectation.
Do you expect your wife to do all the housework?
Do you expect your husband to reply to your messages in 10 seconds or less?
In many workplaces, one of the most important things that happens in the recruitment process is to manage expectations as well.
Does the employee expect to work from home by default?
Does the employer expect the employee to answer her messages in 10 seconds or less?
Now, Peter is not an employee of the Church, just as I’m not an employee of the Church.
We’re called to the office by the Archbishop of Sydney and it’s the local Church, the congregation here present, who supplies our needs by providing what’s known as stipends.
It’s as payment made so that we can do ministries.
And so, ministers aren’t employees.
But even so, we do have expectations of ministers, and we will have expectations of Peter.
How can we set realistic and godly expectations of our ministers?
Earlier today I asked, “How do we have a hope that won’t let us down?”
As Peter begins, we ask, “How do we have expectations of a minister that won’t let us down?”
I hope you were here already for the first part of the sermon.
If not, you can grab a copy of the sermon from the back.
For now, I’ll only focus on the last part of today’s passage, from verses 10-12.
Before we look into it, let’s pray,
“Father, thank you for bringing us back again today to hear from your word. By your Spirit give us a thirst, a hunger for your word, that we might long for what the angels long to see. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”
Chosen exiles are saved through Spirit-sent Gospel preachers (1:10-12)
If our expectations of Peter and of any minister or the expectation of a minister of the church are based on worldly standards, we’ll disappoint each other.
That’s because both the church and the minister are fallible sinners.
Neither the Church or ministers on this side of heaven are perfect and so we shouldn’t expect perfection from each other.
Does that mean that we are to have no expectations?
Absolutely not!
We’re to have expectations but our expectations must be according to God’s expectations.
God, in his mercy, knows how fallible we are, and yet, His expectations are far higher, and far more wonderful than ours.
Look with me at 1 Peter 1:10-11, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who prophesied about the grace that would come to you, searched and carefully investigated. 11 They inquired into what time or what circumstances the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified in advance to the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.”
Salvation, with its living hope, didn’t come to us suddenly.
God prepared His people for thousands of years for this.
Prophets carefully investigated and followed the Spirit’s lead to find the time and circumstances of Christ’s coming.
The prophets longed for Christ’s coming and worked hard to find out more about it.
I have a nephew who loves planes.
When he was young, he would ask his mother to drive him all the way from their home to their airport, a 40-50 minute drives, just to see planes land and take off.
He knew so much about planes that he would just look at the plane from the ground and tell me what kind of plane it was.
No one forced him to memorise these facts about planes; he loves planes and he happily studied about them.
The prophets were excited about Jesus’ coming.
They didn’t know the full story yet, they only knew Jesus from afar, much like my nephew seeing the planes flying above from the ground.
But the Spirit guided the prophets to give them a glimpse of what would happen when Christ comes.
They testified about Jesus in advance, even though they lived hundreds of years before Jesus’ coming.
Literally, the word is translated advanced testifying.
For us, when we testify, it’s always after the fact.
The incident happened; we witnessed it and talk about it afterwards.
But the prophets had advanced testimony: they testified in advance.
The Spirit’s guidance was so powerful, so sure, that their description of what would happen to Jesus was as solid as if they were there.
They saw both Christ’s sufferings and the glories that followed.
Even though they might not have seen every detail, they saw the suffering of Christ as he carried the cross up Mount Calvary.
Even though they weren’t explicit in all the external details, they wrote down what went through Jesus’ mind and the significance of the day.
They also had a glimpse of the glory and significance of the resurrection, which proved that Jesus was indeed the Son of God.
The prophets sought these things, knowing their hard work was for us, believers in Jesus.
The prophet had written them down as advanced testimonies, but now they’re realities for us.
We are living and experiencing the very salvation that the prophets had a glimpse of.
The Holy Spirit, who led the prophets to write down the prophecies about Jesus in the Bible, now accompanies those who preach the gospel of Jesus.
Look with me at verse 12, “It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. These things have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—angels long to catch a glimpse of these things.”
Peter, that’s what we expect of you.
We expect you to preach the gospel of Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
God has saved you though His Son and now He sends the Holy Spirit to go with you to preach the gospel to those here present and to those who are yet to come.
If our expectation is just to do odd jobs around the church, or make our lives more comfortable, or even to increase our numbers, we’re falling short of what God expects you to me.
No, our expectation must be higher than these: we want you to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to show us Christ’s glory, to investigate and to explain the gospel to us.
Indeed, not just us, but for the many thousands of people of Kogarah and beyond.
The prophets investigated and wrote down what the Holy Spirit had shown them in the Bible.
By his grace and power, God has fulfilled these prophecies in Jesus.
It is this gospel of Jesus, this grace that the Father has given, that you must preach by the Holy Spirit.
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Even angels long to see you preach the gospel so that people are saved.
Angels long to see all gospel preaching ministers, wherever they’re from, whatever language they speak, to preach the gospel so that people are saved.
It’s not just angels who long for this; we all ought to share the same longing.
This is the heart of what we do at St Paul’s Kogarah.
We preach the gospel by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, to equip the saints so we can show the gospel, so that people can see the gospel, hear the gospel, believe the gospel, and tell the gospel.
That’s why God gathered us here.
God gathers us to build and nurture a nation that lives and breathes the gospel of Jesus Christ.
A pastor by the name of William Mackenzie shared this story about old Pastor John.
A certain Pastor John visited an old lady in his congregation who was dying in her bed.
She was laying perfectly still, so still, that Pastor John didn’t know whether she was alive or dead.
And so he said, “Erm Mary, Mary, are you ready to die? Are you ready to be welcomed into the loving arms of Jesus?”
No response; she just laid there.
And so he said, “Erm Mary, what would you say if you lost your grip of Jesus, and he lost his grip of you?”
And this dying lady sat up, looked him in the eye and said, “Ah minister, that could never happen!”
“How is that? How can you say that Mary?”
“Well, he would have more to lose. I would lose my own soul but h e would lose his honour and his reputation”
The Minister said, “Ah Mary, you are ready.”
Now that’s a living hope.
And so, how do we have an expectation of Peter that won’t let us down?
Expect Peter to preach the gospel by the Holy Spirit, to keep pointing people to Jesus.
Expect Peter to Seek God’s glory, not his own.
And Peter, expect that of me, and of us as a Church.
And so, friends, remember that 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
Here are three bonus questions for us to think about:
1. “The prophets….searched and carefully investigated” 1 Peter 1:10. When was the last time you diligently investigated a Bible passage or a Bible topic? What was it?
2. Why must training and preparing preachers of the gospel remain the heart of what we do as a Church?
3. How can we be the Church that angels long to catch a glimpse of?
Chosen exiles, you who are born into a living hope in the risen Christ, kept by the power of God, keep proclaiming the gospel of Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
Amen.