1 Peter 1:1-12, At What Do You Long to Look?

You reading first Peter chapter 1 the first 12 verses Hear the word of the

Lord Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion and Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia according to the foreknowledge of God the

Father and the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood

May grace and peace be multiplied to you 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

To an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you

Who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time in?

This you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary You have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith

More precious than gold that perishes though. It is tested by fire May be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ Though you have not seen him you love him though You do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with joy

That is inexpressible and filled with glory obtaining the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls

Concerning this salvation the prophets who prophesied about the grace that is to be yours searched and inquired carefully

Inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves But you and the things that have now been announced to you

Through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven things into which angels long to look

May the Lord has blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, what would you like to see right now

What sight would you long to look at if you could? Maybe it's something you've only seen in pictures, but want to see in person like the

Grand Canyon or Yosemite one most beautiful places on earth or Hawaii Or Bali some want to visit an exotic place.

You know, I'd love to see Paris before I die Some people say maybe the Forbidden City in Beijing or the pyramids or an

African Safari Some would love to see an event in Person that they've only seen maybe on television like the

NFL game or the Super Bowl or maybe their favorite band in concert With all the politics this year some long to see their favorite politician

Sworn in as president or maybe their least favorite one not to be sworn in Most of us though long to see something

We've seen before Something we've already seen in the past, but we want to see again to see the familiar

Maybe some departed loved one or to look at our home again

They want to take a sentimental journey back home when I was in California in the late 80s

I wanted to go back to Alabama and go home But just over 30 years now Although I did get to go back home for a few months, but between Christmas of 1990 and then

New Year's My mother drove me to the Birmingham Airport with her oldies music playing and that 40s song came on Gonna take a sentimental journey

On my way to take the flight to Singapore where I would soon be married and live and work After a while there.

I wanted to go home again By September of 1993 rather than going home

We went to Ethiopia for two years exactly and I longed to look again at Alabama to take a flight back there

And I could see in my mind the plane Coming in to land near the airport looking out the window at home

Birmingham in the valley Red Mountain in the distance with a Vulcan statue on top. I'd go get some barbecue

Well, how about you? you long to look at home again

Americans love to think that all the immigrants who come here just long To be here and to stay here

But the truth is that many of them if they could Would like to go home like to go back to their home where they came from if only they had the opportunities there

So they'll come they'll come to America with plans to make some money and then after they made their money to return home

That's probably the plans many of them come with but some some in fact are able to do that But what happens with many is they find out that the children that they had here

While they were making all that money see, this is their home and So they're stuck with this longing to go home or Having to stay here to be near their children.

They always have a little dream of going back home Now the Puritans who founded

New England thought that they would make make America the a model of Christian charity That we did change the world especially

England and then once they changed England They could return to England and when the English Civil War broke out in the 1640s

The Puritans took over for over a decade and many of them did in fact return home there were more people going back from America back to England than the other way around and but That 1660 when the king was restored things went back to the way they were before they many of them came

Back to America and after a while They began to feel at home here and then waves of other immigrants the

Dutch the Germans the French more Germans Irish Italians Polish Did I mention the

Germans and then later Chinese Japanese Koreans Indonesians even and even a couple of Singaporeans?

At least one that I know of would experience the same thing a longing to see home

Again as they're just kind of traveling through here now in the old days, they could only stay in touch with home by letters an

Occasional letter to keep their attachment to the homeland Now they can instant message their friends.

They can FaceTime our friends still back home. They can watch Chinese TV They can see videos of their other family back at home.

They can listen to music in their native language They can live in America, but surround themselves with everything for back home

So that so much so they hardly know anything about America They're here, but they're just so surrounded still in their culture that they don't they don't know what

America is except Again, it's the children The children bring them face to face with a reality that they aren't home anymore

You so long to see home again, and maybe you can even make the trip Get to visit home and then you get there and then it's all it's all gone

The people have moved on the places have changed The barbecue is not quite as good as you remember it

Home is a memory that you can't see anymore Well, what do you long to look at?

Well here we see what we should be Longing to look at in three parts

You see that first the people second the homeland and finally the salvation the people the homeland

Salvation and what do you long to look? Here Peter the Apostle.

He's the sent one from Jesus himself. That's how he introduces himself That is that's who he is.

He's the messenger of Jesus. So he's speaking for Jesus So these words here have

To us the same words as the words of Jesus It is Jesus speaking to us through Peter since he's

Peter is Is Jesus his messenger and he's writing in place of Jesus and he writes to people that he apparently can't see in person

Whom he would love to be able to talk to But he can't and so he sends them this letter now

They are in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia Only one of those terms sounds familiar and with the one that does

Asia is actually kind of confuses us because it doesn't mean Well, we consider Asia. These are all provinces and what we call now

Asia Minor or basically Turkey They are they are believers and then he calls them exiles

Is interesting exiles which sounds like they they're not natives to their to those areas

Exiles is like the Jews who have been taken exile by the Babylonians And he calls them the dispersion or literally the

Greek word is diaspora the scattered people And that fact that he causes these people that's who he's writing to is that you're exiles

You're the you're the diaspora that causes some people to think that he's writing only to Jewish Christians to Jews Who are believers in Jesus just them not

Gentile Christian just Jewish Christians The Jews had of course the Jews had dispersed now throughout all that part of the world

So that there were little pockets of Jews here here and there little communities of Jews in almost every city

And in in the middle what we now call the Middle East the Mediterranean area and that's what was called the

Jewish diaspora Now are these are those the people at least among those

Jewish diaspora who happen to believe in Jesus? Are those the people that Peter is writing to now besides the fact that I don't believe an apostle

Writing for Jesus to the church would write narrowly to one ethnic group of Christians and leave out the others

Okay, that's already a problem. I don't believe he would do that Besides that later in this very chapter 1 verse 18

Peter says that these people that he's writing to he says they have been ransomed from the feudal ways

Inherited from your forefathers. Now. I don't think that he would describe the Jews ways as feudal

That didn't sound like you the way you would talk about the Jewish culture and their laws as feudal because they inherited from God, but They were confused about it, but he wouldn't describe it as feudal as vain as empty.

That's the way you describe paganism In chapter 4 verses 3 and 4.

He says that the neighbors of these people he says they are surprised That you don't join them

That is don't join the neighbors in Debauchery immorality drunkenness and idolatry now,

I don't think anyone would be surprised that the Jews don't join in on Idolatry, so these people were not just narrowly

Jews Jewish Christians they were not mostly Jews, but they were all

Christians mostly Gentile Christians like us Which is interesting because then they're natives of these provinces, aren't they?

Pontus Galatia, Bithynia, Asia, they're they're the people of that homeland and yet he calls them exiles

He calls them the dispersion As though they're from somewhere else well, that's important because That means that he's calling

Gentile Christians like us elect That's the chosen of God and the diaspora

God's people dispersed among all nations So the Jewish diaspora like the Chinese diaspora today, there's a

Chinese diaspora Now with pockets of Chinese people everywhere and everywhere in the world out of Sabah, Ethiopia You can find

Chinese community with Chinese restaurants. They're the best restaurants there Well, you say we're we were there Chinatown to the big cities and a

Chinese restaurant in almost every strip mall No, there's not but you may be you may think there's a law that requires every strip mall in the u .s

To have a Chinese restaurant is not so it's just a spontaneously have done that and that's a picture of how

God's people are scattered around the world God has a diaspora

Scattering of his people and they are The other sheep Jesus mentioned in John chapter 10 that he is bringing says he has he says talking about do is to his disciples

You know, I can say it I have other sheep besides you other sheep around this world that he's bringing to be part of his sheepfold to be one flock

And they are scattered in America and China and Ethiopia and Indonesia here and there the dispersed people of God may be technically natives of their land wherever they are in America here

But they are really still the exiles because this is not their home here Peter is writing to those dispersed believers here in Asia Minor and of course through through Peter Jesus is speaking to us and he calls them cause us exiles

That is temporary residents in a foreign place. People are not really natives To where they are

That's who we are. We're aliens in a strange land those of you who are or have been residents in a foreign place then have an advantage in understanding who we are as Believers of this world our home is elsewhere.

We may be technically natives here, but we're really exiles We long for our real home to be able to look out the window and see it the city of God the heavenly

Zion All we long to see it, but for now We're exiles.

We're aliens in a strange land residents here for now but away from home

I was an alien in Singapore Sometimes I felt so out of place Then both

Mary and I were aliens in Ethiopia. We would sometimes go to the American Embassy I guess she was still an alien there

But I wasn't to rent videos and or eat lunch or watch a movie a little outpost of home now

She's an alien here a stranger in a strange land. She probably thinks this is sometimes a really strange land

We're also notice elect or chosen now elect just means chosen Here chosen by God from out of groups of people who are otherwise not chosen by God The Jews thought that their whole nation was chosen

But here Peter is saying that the elect are people not chosen because of their ethnic group because not because of their blood

Not because they're united to people like a common lineage descended from from Jacob or whoever No, it's not blood that makes them exiles, but God's choice of them

God chose people from Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia, Bethany England America Germany China Indonesia Singapore wherever and That choice that he made

Selecting you to be one of his sheep and then corralling you into his sheepfold The church that divine choice is

What makes you? elect chosen Not your choice He doesn't say notice.

He doesn't say the electing or the choosing exiles. Does he uses this term very precisely?

You're not the one doing the choosing but it's the elect exiles the elect chosen among that is elect chosen modifying

The word exiles exiles who have been Chosen and a lot of people hate the idea that their their destiny or their identity is

Is out of their hands? It's based on a choice. That's not under their control

We think we can control everything about us As though we would make the right choice if we we could control it who we are of course, the reality is that we're all born into families and into ethnic groups

There are not of our choosing We didn't get to choose Choose that who we are here.

We're one of the chosen exiles Because of God's choice were chosen exiles dispersed in a strange land according to the foreknowledge of God the

Father in verse 2 The father and was knew us had foreknowledge of us

Knowledge of us before him and that doesn't mean he just knew about us that he could see the chain of events that would

Happen in the future and he would know that Such a person is coming in such a time the term does it just mean prior knowledge like you might know

There's a baby coming in late February. Oh, we kind of know that but we don't know who that person is yet Here the foreknowledge means actually knowing the person

God knows who that person is already He knew you before you were even born because he's not bound by time here in particular

He knew you and so chose you to be one of his chosen people dispersed

Around the world. That's what the father did then the Holy Spirit Sanctified you means he set you apart in verse 2 meaning he selected you for himself your mind.

He said sanctified Paul says that the Spirit seals us

Imagine like a stamp in those days probably with wax on a document put a seal on it.

It shows this it comes from me The Holy Spirit seals us like a stamp marking you off from others who don't have that stamp

Showing that you belong to him. That's what the Spirit does then the Sun Says sprinkles you with his blood

So that your sins are cleansed So that you're bought by him So notice there.

Did you notice what Peter just did? father spirit Son, maybe not in the order we used to but that's the

Trinity the Trinity the Father Spirit of the Son set you apart For this is the purpose that he saved you sprinkled you with his blood that he set you apart

For your obedience to Jesus he says so that so that he's your

Lord and You do what he says Because you want to because he's given you a new heart so people

Here you are You may be native here, but you're not really native. Here. Are you your exiles people you're set apart chosen exiles dispersed in North Carolina and Virginia May God freely

God God's freely given amazing grace his peace with him

You're no longer enemies of God. So the greatest conflict that you ever had to worry about That's over.

So you have peace to make that amazing grace and that perfect peace be multiplied to you to you the people in In 2021 and what do you long to look?

home your inheritance Where is that? on the other side of the world

Maybe in Alabama Maybe a house and a plot of land not far from here. Where is home?

Here starting verse 3 we have an inheritance a homeland like Israel had an inheritance that they had never seen

Except for 12 spies, you know for 40 years and this inheritance they this homeland is that it was promised to them

They wandered in the desert something to hope for and from God But it's still theirs even though they hadn't seen it yet.

Blessed is the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Peter says Peter praise him

Peter shouts because he's given us an inheritance in verse 4 a homeland a place where we belong even if you're supposedly native here

You're an exile here. You've been dispersed here. Your real home is somewhere else. You have a homeland.

Well, how do you get it? first he says by his great mercy

Not by our rule keeping not by our religion not by our making the right choices but by his much

Mercy in verse 3 says he has caused us to be born again. Notice that I I I just learned that this was in the

Bible just this week. I had no idea This is a major theological question here. What causes us to be born again?

are we say first and then have faith or Do we muster up faith and make the right choice and then

God saves us because of that technical terms this faith precede regeneration I Didn't I didn't know that the answer is right here until this week study this passage first Peter chapter 1 verse 3

He has caused us to be born again Now some people have the view the way they interpret

John 3 16 You know for God's whole of people that he made it So that they have a free choice and if they freely choose to believe in Jesus that that then makes them

If they make the right choice born again Well, that is we make ourselves born again by making the right choice

Kind of like pushing the right buttons on a machine or flipping the light switch, you know, I think well, okay I I didn't generate the electricity.

I didn't put up the wires up that brought the electricity here. I didn't wire the house So they could turn on but I it still took me to flip that switch in order to get the lights on It still depends on me

Well, no Here Peter clearly says that God causes us to be born again

Our choice to believe isn't what caused us to be born again our being born again

Caused us to believe God is the cause of Our being born again.

He flips the switch so that we'll have he says a living Hope a hope that that grows like any living thing living things grow and Our hope will grow

So we'll have more of it as time goes on We have a growing confidence in the

Lord, especially as we're approaching death Because our hope is alive and it will survive our way through death

He caused us to be born again He says here through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead his physical resurrection

Caused our spiritual resurrection that spiritual resurrection. So we're now alive gives us an

Inheritance that inheritance in verse 4 and inheritance is a treasure We did work for You know, we didn't earn it inheriting something is the easiest way you can get something

Someone else earned it and then bequeaths it to us because of their love for us

We didn't we did nothing you do nothing to get an inheritance except be loved

In 2011 the last of my grandparents died my father's mother She was the only one

Able to leave an inheritance the rest just weren't don't they call him poor, but they certainly weren't wealthy

She was the only one able to leave us an inheritance Because her either her grandparents or her great -grandparents had been wealthy plantation owners in the

Old South They had over 50 slaves and we once even heard the reading of a will at 1860 will

Where they were planning our my ancestors were planning on bequeathing the slaves by name to their children

They had like 12 children and they were gonna bequeath their slaves. They would say whatever the name of the child he gets

Thus enough of us these slaves by name like that everyone bequeath a certain number of the slaves in 1860 some families may not be able to give their children much of an inheritance

Slaves, of course weren't able to earn or save anything So they couldn't pass on anything to the slaves never could give an inheritance my ancestors

We were plantation owners in Georgia thought that they could pass down all their inheritance But soon after 1860, of course, it was nearly all gone with the wind

Often inherited wealth has frittered away because the people who didn't earn it Don't know how to keep it

So they'll just do extravagant things with their money They'll build exorbitant mansions like the Biltmore just to indulge themselves in a generation or two though.

Then all that money is gone Here though our inheritance is described Three ways in verse four it's imperishable.

That is it will never be lost. It's undefiled it doesn't spoil and It's unfading that is it doesn't lose its luster

Finally, it's protected in the most secure safety deposit box in the universe. He says kept in heaven for you

That's pretty secure. Now. Do you long to see your treasure? You might think okay.

Well the treasure the inheritance is kept safe in heaven, but what about me? You know,

I'm a stranger in a strange land. I could be the victim I could be maybe you can't destroy my treasure, but you destroy me but Peter says in verse 5 we the inheritors are being guarded by God's power his power protects us

So that we will get that treasure That salvation which will be revealed

He says at the end at the resurrection every one of those scattered sheep that Jesus Said that he's gathering from all around the world into his sheepfold.

Every one of them will be kept safe He said no one can snatch them out of my hand

So he won't lose one of them. He guards them. He guards us here by God's power and through faith

That's how we're involved in it, that's our faith our through our continuing to trust him our ongoing faith in Jesus is evidence that He has been guarding us and he will keep doing it

Until we're home safe He will Hold us fast

So because of this Peter says in verse 6 We Rejoice, we have a treasure.

We can't lose and we can't be kept from getting it. That's something to rejoice about even if we're grieved he says by various trials here

Probably means some of the persecution some of these people were going through but various means all kinds like the death of a loved one the loss of some treasure we had on earth a relationship a home

Maybe having to be strangers exiles away from where we want to be those various trials test whether we'll continue to be strangers or whether we'll assimilate

You know whether we'll become like the world. We'll just become like the environment we're in like immigrants to America Over enough time maybe a couple generations became

Americans right the melting pot Will our faith preserve us so that we don't melt or will we become worldly just as focus on making money

Just as individualistic just as unfaithful. So just like worldly people break their promises

We break ours just as often divorced or just as often immoral We're being pressured by the forces of the world to see if we'll conform various trials

Are whether we'll he'll keep us safe by his power whether we will continue to be exiles hankering for a home far away or We begin to feel kind of comfortable here

Not really much different at all that that pressure Which separates us that pressure test our faith whether we really believe our treasure is in heaven

Kept in heaven for you So that it's proven our faith is proven if we if we continue to believe we continue to persevere

We continue to be different. We continue to be exiles in a strange land I'm not understand why all these people around us doing these things that we know we're just so wrong

That it proves our faith to be real it documents our Perseverance documents the genuineness of our faith so that it's it's not fake anymore.

Not just fake religion That we used to assuage our conscience. It's really we just are doing whatever

Whatever we please When it's proven when it's documented that faith he says is more precious than gold

Now gold might not tarnish it might not tarnish for now But eventually even it

Will be destroyed Even if it's pure gold that proven documented genuine faith will result in Praise and glory and honor

Whenever Jesus is revealed He's revealed here and now in your life or finally when he's revealed at the end when he returns then we'll see him so so far

We have it. We haven't seen him Peter. I'd seen him But the people he was writing to elect exiles like us

Hadn't seen him like we have it But Peter says in verse 8 though you have not seen him in the past you love him your proven faith proves that Though you do not now

See him in the present. You've never unlike Peter seen him in person times in the present

We don't see him. For example, we don't see him in the Lord's Supper. We remember him while he's physically absent in the

Lord's Supper So though you do not now see him you believe in him.

That's been proven Because you're still exiles You're still separate.

You're still apart and You rejoice he says with joy That is inexpressible and filled with glory

Joy, that is so much greater than what I can describe with mere words

That's why we Christians so often Sing Not just to express theology but glorious joy

If what do you long to look? Maybe someone precious now lost

There's nothing wrong with that that can come through our salvation because salvation includes at the end a

Resurrection and return to health and life now that being the case then You should long to look at At salvation

What it is How great it is about this salvation in verse 10

About this salvation. That's this whole paragraph of verses 10 to 12 about this salvation that gives us the the gloriously inexpressible joy about this salvation the prophets were interested they studied it the

Old Testament is about This salvation That's what he's saying in verses 10 and 11

Now over the last 200 years some have been teaching that the Old Testament is is for another era It's about another kind of salvation.

It's just about Israel being saved from their enemies It all involves literal

Israel getting literal land and all that stuff that really doesn't have much of anything to do with us Maybe we're interested in it for history's sake, but it really not relevant to us anymore

And so we've been told we can then because of all that we can unhitch the Old Testament from our faith

We can pretty much ignore it It's just not relevant to us. So some say but here Peter says that the prophets like Isaiah Jeremiah Amos prophesied about the grace that was to be yours think about that statement they prophesied about the grace that was to be yours

You elect exiles about that amazing grace they prophesied about the gospel

Notice that clearly in verse 10 Peter is saying that the Old Testament prophets were talking about our

Salvation by grace only through faith only in Christ only now sure They may have mentioned other things along the way like judgment on ancient kingdoms, but their main theme was about The gospel our gospel that about that amazing grace we sang of earlier now the

Bible is one unified Story of God saving his people in the

Old Testament its promises made About that coming salvation even the prophets like like Isaiah Didn't fully understand what they were prophesying

Peter says here that they searched and inquired carefully Or was they made an active effort to find out what does this mean?

Who is this? Servant of the Lord who is pierced for our transgressions. Who is this?

What is this new covenant written on on the hearts? What's that about? Who is this son of man?

Bringing in God's kingdom during 70 weeks of years. What is all that about? They studied the scriptures that they had they asked

God they racked their brains to figure out who and When this was all about now some say

You have to interpret the Old Testament To be about events and people in the

Old Testament in their time and their life not about things that they knew nothing about But here that's what some people say here in verse 11

Peter says that the Spirit of Christ Was in them Was in the prophets and he would the

Spirit of Christ Christ himself. In other words was showing them about the sufferings of Christ like in Isaiah 53 the servant who was pierced for our transgressions about the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories like Amos I miss this prophecy about how

God will restore David's fallen tent or the restoration of the Kings from the from the line of David or Jeremiah on how

God will write His law on people's hearts or Hosea about how God's new people will be called children of the

Living God They sought to figure out these prophets sought to figure out how God was going to do this

What what all this means because they weren't just preaching sermons on their current events

But they were inspired Peter says by the Spirit of Christ in them

What do you long to look? Never been so hungry to understand something just so so intrigued

You just crave to to understand something to see what something means. It's a mystery to you get to the bottom of it to learn

You ever had that so much you you studied you researched you read dense books listen to experts back to your brain

The prophets were like that with the promises of the gospel in verse 12 Peter says it was revealed to them the gospel at least

Parts of it pieces to the puzzle, but they couldn't put it all together yet That's why they were not just addressing events in their day their historical setting

They weren't just serving the people of their time serving themselves They were serving

Peter says they were serving not themselves, but you you You chosen exiles you strangers in a strange land

The Old Testament prophets searched diligently to figure out what these what those prophecies about Christ and the gospel in the church

What it all meant? but instead God revealed to them

What he said to Daniel through an angel seal up these things. They'll be playing they'll be playing in the latter days and these days

The days after Jesus was raised in our days God revealed to them that they weren't just prophesying for themselves for their nation at that time

But for people yet to come for those elect exiles scattered around the world

The prophets were writing for us one unified message of salvation seen before in the

Old Testament and then seen after in the new the prophets long to look at the gospel, but they could only see a piece

Because they were serving us The chosen exiles Jesus sent out the gospel to his to his dispersed people he sent it out in preachers in books with parents or with friends

Sharing the faith to them who were announcing to us the same salvation that the prophets saw

Now if we believed it, it's because in the middle of verse 12 the Holy Spirit Empowered them the

Holy Spirit was speaking through them speaking through those preachers or those books or those parents or those friends By the

Holy Spirit the gospel was announced and we heard what we couldn't hear before and So he caused us to be born again the telling of the gospel brings life

To his scattered people when the Holy Spirit sent from heaven Speaks through it

It what do you long to look Well, this salvation is so great

That God causes us to be born again through the resurrection Predicted beforehand by the prophets.

It's so great the prophets Studied to figure it out and now he says now

Even the angels the angels long to look at the gospel to get a peek

They come to church To hear the wonders of our salvation that's how great it is and That's why of all the things

You may long to look at that you want to see of all those things the gospel